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VIRGINIA GEORGICS, 



WRITTEN FOR THE 



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By CHARLES CARTER LEE, 

One op Its MEiiEERS, 

AND 

PUBLISHED BY THE CirB. 




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- *' . s-fri" E.rt*^_r" 



RICHMOND: 
JAMES WOODHOUSE AND COMPANY, 

1858. 



// 



Ts 






Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1858, 

By JAMES WOODHOUSE AND COMPANY, 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for 

the Eastern District of Virginia. 



PRINTED BY MACPAELANE & PEnGUSSON, 
EICHMOND, VA. 



XXpnXK (BtQXptB, 
Part I., 



•) 



BY CHARLES CARTER LEE: 

RRA.D TO THE CLUB AT ITS LAST MEETING, AT WINSOR, THE RESIDENCE 
OF THE AUTHOR, viz: JULY 2nD, 1858. 



"Well. we may afford 
Our givers their own gifts, and large bestow 
From large bestowed, where Nature multiplies 
Her fertile growth, and by disburdening, grows 
More fruitful, which instructs us not to spare. 

Paradise Lost — Book V, 



tbitiitioit. 



To The 

Membeks of the ActRicdltural Society of Virginia, akl' 

especially to its late president, 

PHILIP ST. GEORGE COCKE, 

Who was so Instrumental in its Prosperous Establishjient. ani 

WHOSE Liberal Subscription to its Funds Mainly 

Contributed to Procure for their 

County the honor of being 

THE BANNER COUNTY OP THE C03IM0NWEALTH, 

The Following Pages are Respectfully Dedicated By 

€^i Mlt ml €nmx €kh 

Of Powhatan. 



VIEGINIA GEORGICS. 

I* ART I. 



In things the same the greatest difference seen 
Is that perhaps betwixt the fat and lean : 
None know the steed his master rode in pride, 
In the poor jade that on the common died ; 
And e'en the face of beaut j, though it rise 
Above decay in soul-revealing eyes — 
Yet the pale cheek and lustre-lacking skin 
Betray the difference between plump and thin. 
But of all things, what chiefly loose their charms, 
As they grow poor and wasted, are our farms. 

How rich this earth in soil, how fair in face. 
When the Creator gave it to our race ! 
How stored with game, how beautiful with birds. 
And all its ranges filled with various herds. 
The Indian arrow-heads we pick up here, 
How many more they slaughtered of fat deer 
Than all our boasted fire-arms ! And so 
Corn crowned the labours of their wooden hoe 
With more abundance than our acres now 
Yield to the furrows of the iron plough. 



8 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

And why ? Because the earth was fertile then, 

And now impoverished by the waste of men. 

Then what we have to do is, if we can, 

To make the soil such as 'twas given to man ; 

This how to accomplish I shall try to show 

By reasons wrought to rhyme, if rhyme will flow. 

Above man's learning Nature's ways are wise, 
These are the lessons taught us from the skies. 
The untutored Indians, who upon this spot 
Dwelt years, which all our knowledge numbers not, 
Had one great rule to curb their varied hunts. 
Ne'er to kill more than to supply their Avants : 
The rest they kept to multiply the stores 
Which filled the rivers and their wooded shores. 
So of the corn they raised 'twas all consumed 
Upon the spot on which its tassels bloomed. 
Naught of the rich ingredients of the plain 
Was sent far from it in the shape of grain ; 
Whatever product from its bosom grew 
Returned again that product to renew. 
And thus the savage held his daily feast. 
Nor wood, nor field, nor stream experienced waste. 

To these unwasted realms the white man came 
In his terrific arms of steel and flame : 
What naked valour could 'gainst such a foe 
Achieved the native with his bended bow — 
But all in vain ! His race became the slaughter 
Of fire-arms and deadlier fire-water. 
What then ensued ? The fairest in creation 
Of virgin realms and highest civilization 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Embraced each other ; from such marrying 

Hope looked to see results the brightest spring — 

But the old tale was told on earth again ; 

The sons of God embraced the daughters of men, 

And desolation followed — not of flood, 

That lasted but one year and was for good. 

This new-world desolation was the toil 

Of labouring thousands withering out their soil — 

Of its most precious life-blood made to bleed 

To furnish distant nations with a weed, 

Which they would take in snuff — and laugh and joke, 

And puff Virginia's life away in smoke. 

Briars and broom-straw, galls and gullies then, 

Each drearer in succession, followed men ; 

'Till 'twas affirmed by the learned of other lands, 

A desert next there 'Id be of floating sands. 

The worn-out soil's restorer, old field's nurse, 

The evergreen pine, redeemed us from this curse — 

That plasters o'er the gall, the gully heals. 

And covers with its boughs the naked fields. 

'Tis sweet but melancholy, yet to see, 
Above its growth, some bald old cherry tree, 
The only mark of where a dwelling stood — 
A Brent, perhaps, owned the primeval wood; 
Perhaps a Gary, or perhaps a Grymes, 
Or some old honored name of the old-times ; 
No matter which, he's gone, to be more lucky. 
On the Ohio's banks, or in Kentucky — 
Or more unhappy still, in seeking bliss, he 
Has perished in some swamp of Mississippi. 



10 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

In the sweet spot "where once his mansion stood, 

Filled with domestic joy and every good, 

Some lingering mock-bird on his starry wings. 

Or in lament, or in derision sings, 

That man who boasts to be so highly blessed 

Should loose his home, where he still holds his nest. 

Well ! that has passed from all but memory, 
And lives in that of none, perhaps, but me : 
Then let it pass from every heart but mine. 
And save my own, fill not an eye with brine ; 
But, 0, let me, whose race so long has been here, 
Be pardoned when I grieve for old Virginia ! 

Th' evil became so glaring, that a note 
Of warning roused the land. Arator wrote 
His stirring numbers — Garnett lectured on 
The way to farm, while Waring worked his corn.* 
Then Agricultural Societies grew, 
And spoke and published what they thought they knew : 
Tobacco must be banished, farming now 
Must occupy the labours of the plough ; 
Keep oif the hoof, put on the lime, and sow 
Clover wherever on your land 'twill grow — 
Haul all your corn-stalks, as the weather allows, 
To make manure when they have fed your cows ; 
Condemned to broom-straw fields, their Summer walks, 
E,ather than pastures, winter them on stalks — 
Add enough wheat-straw, a rude sheltering arch, 
And half may safe survive the winds of March ; 

* See note 1. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 11 

And of this management to crown the charm 
Adopt the five field system on your farm. 
" But then the galls and gullies ?" " Trash, manure. 
And horizontal ploughing* these will cure." 
" But how then to enrich those fields, you know, 
On which nor grass, nor clover yet will grow?" 
" On these your new rotation carry out, 
Keep ofi" the hoof, and above all the snout, 
And all will soon come right, or I'm mistaken." 
"But without hogs, what shall I do for bacon ?" 
" Your bacon, sir ? Why don't you know 'tis best 
Not to raise pork, but buy it from the West?" 
" But how get money thus my pork to buy ?" 
" Why, sell more grain, and thus the means supply." 
The improved system, this was called, of farming, 
And the fair future it proclaimed was charming. 
Galls should no more fertility entomb. 
But every broom-straw field with clover bloom — 
The pabulum in every new rotation 
Of larger and larger crops to enrich the nation. 
To speed the happy work mechanics toil 
To improve the implements which till the soil, 
And racked their brains to make by every means. 
Wit can invent, all labour-saving machines. 
The work went bravely on, the instructed toil, 
Spurning the surface wasted the sub-soil ; 
Each fertile particle twelve inches down 
Was turned to grain and sent off to some town : 

* See note 2. 



12 VIRGHNIA GEORaiCS. 

When lo ! 'twas found that all this deeper skill in 
Farming was but the art of deeper killing. 
Not all the precious dust from t'other zone, 
Swelled as it has the products of our own, 
Has made the broom-straw its dominion yield, 
Nor stopped the gullies in a single field : 
The crops if greater still will scarcely pay — 
Yet take what's precious in the soil away, 
And farmers vainly think their wealth expands, 
Nor see while selling crops they are selling lands.* 

What's precious in the earth, to bless his days. 
Is gathered, for man's use in various ways : 
The miner's sturdy hands the pickaxe hold. 
And crushing engines break the rocks of gold — 
And those, who pander to the world's great lust. 
The coarser earths wash from the glittering dust. 
It is the farmer's task from earth to get 
Ingredients of its soil more precious yet, 
These he collects by tender rootlets, grown 
From seeds by skillful labour duly sown. 
Their little mouths suck up the ash of plants 
In water, which the shower kindly grants ; 
Quickened by these, the tiny leaflets spring, 
And catch the nourishment the zephyrs bring : 
The little plants thus fed by air and earth, 
Grow on apace, leaf after leaf has birth, 
And then the crowning flowers, and then the fruits, 
All springing from and nurtured through the roots ; 

* See note 3. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 13 

These precious contents of earth's surface come, 
Some in its fragrant weeds, in cerials some — 
Others in fibrous wealth for cloth or cable, 
Others as tubers, dainties for the table ; 
But in what shape, or for what use their birth, 
All that is mineral in them comes from earth. 

0, how much of the soil of Old Virginia 
Has gone abroad since Captain Smith came in here ! 
Think of the realms which have so long been pleased at 
The fragrant weed, as chewed, or smoked, or sneezed at; 
Think of how many tons of grain have gone 
To nourish other realms and starve our own, 
And then say is it strange our lands are poor, 
That year by year is closed some happy door, 
And that the Sheriff breaking up the nest 
Of young Virginians, drives them to the West ? 
And in their new abode, the virgin plain. 
Sees the old drama acted o'er again : 
'Tis cleared, then worked until to work too poor, 
And then the unhappy owner moves once more. 
If he has strength to move ; for now his mind 
Is weakened by disease — and 0, behind 
What may he have to leave ? How many lives 
Are buried there ? and what of all survives ? 
Himself, perhaps his wife, perhaps a child, 
The rest are buried in the dreary wild. 
A pale-faced darling, which the mother's care 
Is wild to save, is all that's left them there. 
The very negroes have their laugh subdued — 
How gay it rung along James river's flood, 



14 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

And Rappahannock's, and the river of swans ! 
You'ld think "the Quarters" bred flocks of black ones, 
So merrily their voices ring and chime ! 
But exiled to that far and feverish clime, 
If one a joyous song should sing therein, he 
Would sing " 0, Carry me back to Old Virginny." 

Why should -we ever go ? 'Tis the old sin, 
'Tis that we eat forbidden fruit agen : 
The fruits forbidden now to mortals are 
The fruits forced from the earth it cannot spare : 
For all her bounties all she asks — " Return 
That of my fruits which fire cannot burn; 
I'll give you every thing my bosom yields 
If you'll restore their ashes to my fields — 
Even of those I can a portion spare 
For what my plants can win you from the air : 
0, never think my losses are your gains ! 
Can you grow rich impoverishing my plains ? 
0, why for all I feed you with reduce 
My food to stalks and straw, things of poor use — 
And to reduce me more, e'en now prevails 
A custom to send ofi" my shucks in bales : 
Ah ! why should you to death my bosom work 
To send to Cincinnati for your pork ? 
Why, don't you know that thus you topple down 
The prices of your products at your town, 
And, as competitors for your supply. 
Enhance the value of whate'er you buy ? 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 15 

Why not return to me the grain I give, 

As the things eat it, upon which you live ? 

0, don't you know that mothers love the best 

To nourish all their offspring at their breast ? 

Let me do this, and I will all supply, 

Refuse it, and ye perish or ye fly — 

And whither ? In some wretched swamp to die." 

Such are the words of our own mother earth, 
Strong in their truth and sacred from their birth. 
For God said when He made us in our turn, 
" Of dust thou art, to dust shalt thou return !" 
'Tis from sustaining earth and vital air 
That we get all of which our bodies are. 
T'he Blessed One now on his Heavenly Throne 
Hath said, " man does not live by bread alone ;" 
He hath his soul to feed with Heavenly truth, 
Thereby to flourish in immortal youth ; 
But here where he receives his mortal birth. 
And hath his orders to replenish earth. 
How deep the sin of those by folly chased, 
And avarice, who reduce it to a waste ! 

The fairest spot man e'er on earth did claim here 
Was on the Euphrates, the old Mesopotamia — 
There was the Paradise where Adam dwelt. 
And Eve first wove the sin-born fig-leaf belt ; 
There Babel rose to make mankind diviner, 
But fell confounded on the plain of Shinah ; 
There Babylon, with its surrounding mounds, 
And hanging gardens, empress of the towns — 



16 VIRGINIA GBORGICS. 

There Ninevah by mighty Ninus built, 

Where reigned Semiramis in power and guilt — 

And which when memories of splendour assail us, 

Crowned with earth's sovereignty, shows Sardanapalus. 

What is it now ? The wandering Bedouin 

Roves with his cattle o'er its spots of green, 

And his chief wife, to guard the public weal, 

Selects for her rude throne the bag of meal ; 

In their scarce realm, to save from waste's abuses, 

For want of other locks herself she uses ! 

If you doubt this, and deem the account stretched far. 

You've but to turn to Layard's Ninevah. 

And why is this ? Where myriads once were gathered, 

Why are the camels of the Bedouin tethered ? 

Where once earth's conquering armies used to pass, 

Why can but a few cattle now find grass ? 

Where mighty Babylon once held her reign. 

Why doth the wandering Arab own the plain ? 

It is because her agriculture failed — 

Because what here prevails had there prevailed ; 

Because their soil's requirements long they spurned. 

And from it took much more than they returned. 

Many suppose political constitutions. 
Just forms of government, free institutions. 
Or the reverse, make nations rise and fall; 
And arts and agriculture are nothing at all 
In the great scale where empires are weighed. 
Or as the causes why they grow and fade. 

In forms of government, I would ask these 
Were the Assyrians worse than the Chinese ? 



VIRGINIA GEOEGICS. 17 

Why then hath one third of its people birth 

On that mere little corner of the earth ? 

Why in their numbers are they e'en distressed ? 

Because their agriculture is the best. 

'Twas that which furnished the supplies for all 

The host that built their anti-Tartar wall ; 

'Tis that enables them mankind to defy; 

They have such numbers scarce enough can die ! 

But the old race go on in the old way, 

Howe'er the plague may waste, or sword may lay. 

With all their ills they have not the worst, the vulture 

That eats out the land's heart, bad agriculture. 

Fair forms of government I and what are they 

When those whom they should bless are gone away, 

Or lingering on through stages of decay ? 

Why buy a purse with nothing to put in it ? 

Or house, when one expects death every minute ? 

And what are abstract rights unless complete 

By numbers in whom they become concrete ? 

Without those to enjoy them, why the fine 

Old resolutions of ninety-eight and nine .? 

And for State-rights themselves there '11 be few sighers, 

When the State is a little more given up to briars. 

An empty realm is a poor hollow thing. 
Alike if ruled by democrat or king ; 
And when I hear proud, patriotic vaunts 
O'er regions much distinguished by their wants, 
I can but think of the traveller, and the host 
Whose glittering sign swung from a gaudy post, 



18 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

And told, "witli all the village painter's force, 

That here was ^^ Entertainment for man and horse." 

The traveller rejoiced, and soon as able 

Dispatched his horse by a servant to the stable, 

And said to the landlord, as the steed went on — 

"Get him oats." ""VYe keep none." "Give him corn.' 

"We keep no corn, we are feeding now on chop." 

" Well then, with that we must his hunger stop ; 

And to relieve my own, broil me a chicken. 

And add an egg, or any other fixin\" 

"We don't keep eggs or chickens." "Well, then, get 

Whate'er you please ; but something now to wet 

My whistle let me have, 'tis very dry — 

French brandy, apple jack, or good old rye." 

" We keep no liquors, sir." " Then give me wine 

Or ale, or even beer, before I dine." 

" We keep them neither," " Ycu don't, sir !" (said 

The traveller, now with indignation red ;) 

" What do you keep ? Ask what I may, you have none !' 

"What do I keep ? Why, sir, I keep a tavern !" 

Replied mine host in all his dignity ; 

" Then keep it and be starved ! you sha'nt keep me !" 

And off he went, and never more has been there ! 

Just as our people leave our own Virginia — 

Regretting their fine government to be sure, 

But human Avants require something more. 

Who for a casket cares without the jewel ? 

Or a bright grate in Winter with no fuel ? 

Without a church who cares to build a steeple ? 

And what's a government without a people ? 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS, 19 

Some love the house, some those therein that dwell, 

The wise prefer the oyster to the shell ; 

Yet treasury-pap-fed sharp ones, the sweet moisture 

Dip in the emptied shell and scorn the oyster — 

Save when some great financial conundrum 

They seek to solve by drawing on the fundum. 

And we'll be left a shell, if we go on 

In Agriculture as we yet have gone ; 

Unless a change come o'er us ere too late, 

The hour when we must fall is fixed as fate — 

The hour when o'er Virginia and her glory 

" Was" must be written as o'er Ilion's story ; 

'■^ Fidt Ilium et ingems gloria Teucrorum f 

And States once ruined, nothing can restore them. 

Yet only think there's yearly taken away 
Of potash and phosphoric acid, they say. 
From the soil, of the whole country, twenty millions 
Of dollars' worth ! And one and a half billions 
Of bushels of corn are yearly wasted too. 
In the mineral contents of the food men chew ; 
The ashes of six hundred millions of grain 
Are from our lands' thin surface yearly ta'en, 
And of all this, the country's annual spoil. 
We return scarcely any to the soil ! * 
For farmers here, like politicians, hiss them 
Much as you may, yet cling to the spoils system. 
And say with the raiser, far back on time's tide you know, 
'■^Populus me sibilat, 7iumero nummos et video :" f 

* See note 4. f See note 5. 



20 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

(Which means, the people hiss me, the poor chaff, 
I count the money in my purse and laugh;) 
Let both be rather warned by him, I beg, 
Who killed the goose that laid the golden egg. 

In this work of destruction, it is clear 
Eastern Virginia does, at least, her share ; 
Her ruin then, as plain as reason and rhyme 
Can make it, is a question but of time. 

But of one time no doubt can cloud a brow. 
The time to avert this ruin, which is now ; 
In this earth-butchering, prodigal career, 
Let us not even close this waning year — 
But deem it robbery, and as robbery spurn 
To take more from the earth than we return ; 
It is but fair to those who are to live 
On earth when we are gone, that we should give 
Back to her breast as much as she bestows, — 
If we give more, the act as generous glows : 
But who to improve the earth does all he can. 
Is the best patriot, the true nobleman ! * 
It is not at his overloaded board 
That luxury makes the feast she can't afford; 
It is not he, who sacks his land to buy 
From other lands what his own can supply ; 
He does not deem the earth, nor earth's produce, 
Merely for his, or his generation's use. 
But reverentially directs his toil 
As tenant, not as owner of the soil ; 
And innocently seeks his wholesome food 

* See note 6. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 21 

From mother earth's rich milk, not her life's blood ; 

By him good ways of farming are presumed, 

Not from the most produced, but most consumed ; 

"With him, he highest as a farmer stands 

Who spends not on himself but on his lands ; 

And by him, too, 'tis thought the commonest sin here. 

Is labour spent in ruining Yirginia. 

This to avoid, the rules we should receive 
Are both of negative and positive — 
A negative one, from which we ne'er should roam, 
Is, never huy what you can 7xiise at home ; 
Earth's profitable commerce is the exchange 
Of realm with realm of things to each other strange : 
The unprofitable, to the realm which pays. 
Is to buy that the realm itself could raise : 
And why ? It pays the transportation's cost 
Of the bulky article — all that is lost ; 
And next it looses the consumption made 
Upon the land, with which it drives the trade. 
And third, of Avhat you buy the price you swell. 
And lower that of what you raise to sell. 
Thus 'gainst yourself with both your hands you work. 
One pulls down grain, the other tosses up pork : 
0, what insanity one's self to tear. 
With one hand playing bull, the other bear I 
Such will be soon in rags, with "nothing to wear." 

Now for a positive rule — have sense and nerve 
Never from this one when, while you can, to swerve : 
Reduce the bulk of what from your plantation, 
You sell, to cost the least for transjjortation ; 



22 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Thus all tlie offal to your land you'll give, 
And while you live enable that to live. 
To give some illustrations, few and brief, 
iSTever sell corn, except as corn-fed beef, 
Or pork, or mutton — never sell a veal 
Or lamb, except to help a neighbour's meal : 
When rules of strict economy must yield 
To laws by social feelings signed and sealed. 
The calf and lamb will very soon increase. 
From one the butter sell, from one the fleece ; 
The very carbon in their breath will earn 
Almost what you will give them in return. 
So of one's horses ; 'tis at little cost 
You raise them ; what they eat is far from lost ; 
What to your land is not returned, is grown 
Into the noblest servant man doth own : 
He shares our pleasures, dangers and our toil, 
Whirls on the carriage, and subverts the soil : 
Gentle in peace, and terrible in war. 
Amid its sounding trumpets saith ha ! ha ! 
Would you begrudge a little grass and grain, 
"With this fine creature to adorn your plain ! 
And thus increase Virginia's bill of losses, 
Famed as she is for statesmen and stock-horses ! 
Besides this occupation pleasure brings — 
We must not make our'labours dreary things, 
But in the operations of the farm. 
Besides in their mere profit find a charm ; 
Reduced to that their pleasures sink to vice. 
And that, of all the basest, avarice. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 23 

The colt you raise in a domestic way, 
Will in your children's raptures fairly pay ; 
When it first comes they clap their hands in joy, — 
The rocking-horse is less a favourite toy. 
Your little pets upon its mother ride, 
Delighted "with their plaything at her side ; 
When larger grown your largest boy may take him, 
And to perfect his horsemanship may break him ; 
A blooming daughter then more bloom may gain, 
By cantering the new favourite o'er the plain ; 
And the old man the good old mare may ride, 
With children on her children by his side — 
A double family circle, whose delights 
Power may envy on its thorny heights. 
Another positive rule, alike of sense, 
And what is better still, benevolence, 
(For in delightful harmony are joined 
All the best promptings of the heart and mind,) 
Is to keep fat, and to the utmost fed, 
Whatever on your farm is worked or bred. 
There is no maxim in economy's store 
Than this more precious — Nothing pays that's poor. 
When one condemns whate'er any one meets here, 
He does it in these words — " It's a poor creature !" 
When any rival politician hates men 
Who thwart him, he speaks of them as poor statesmen ; 
When Gallic magnanimity was at zero, 
They spoke of Wellington as a poor hero ; 
(But England had reflected e'en more sorely on 
The heroism of the great Napoleon :) 



24 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

When neighTbourlioods a member would belabour 
For selfisbness, tliey call him a poor neighbour ; 
Of women too, who vex their husbands' lives, 
'Tis said in condemnation, they're poor wives ; 
And when the purse-proud fiercely as they can 
A man denounce, they call him a poor man; 
So when against the price of beeves you battle, 
Or horses even, you call them poor cattle. 

'Twas said of yore the Grods ne'er came alone. 
But in bright groups on mortal vision shone ; 
Mars, Venus, Bacchus — valour, love, and laughter. 
And Jove, Apollo, and Pallas followed after ; 
Juno and Iris, and Diana came. 
And Vulcan, though behind, for he was lame. 
But now the world seems farther from the skies, 
And ills come grouped instead of deities ; 
Poor creatures make poor farmers, these poor stock, 
And all poor lands, a miserable flock. 

To save this realm's presenting such a sight. 
The rules above insisted on are right ; 
Embraced in these is — when 'tis in your power, 
Never sell wheat hut in the form of flour, 
Consume the ofial, give back to your lands 
All but that part Avhich the best price commands. 
And costs least to transport. Work upward still. 
Sell but the pork and not the sows and swill. 
Follow this plan and you'll enrich your soil, 
And plenty and contentment crown your toil. 



VIRGINIA GEOEGICS. 25 

Your liberal governments may then be decked 

With laurels ; they'll have peojDle to protect. 

Clustered in happy crowds, instead of briars, 

And pine and broom-straw fields, whose annual fires 

Trim pastures lean, for cattle lean, whose lean 

Possessors languish few and far between. 

These rules are general, and to prove them true, 

Like other rules have their exceptions too ; 

They need not all be followed by the livers 

On the rich borders of our creeks and rivers ; 

These by rotation, gypsum, clover, lime. 

Improve their lands in a reasonable time, 

They also get the mineral they require. 

And ashes too from the soap-boilers fire ; 

At little cost by means of sails and oars. 

That waft the precious freightage to their shores. " 

The waters also, whether fresh or brine. 

Their treasures yield, caught by the seine or line, 

And e.'en the last are in such numbers taken. 

That sturgeon once was called Charles City bacon. 

Through these advantages, the farmers on 

The river lands may sell both wheat and corn, 

Yet among these the most judicious are 

Those who do'nt push this selling very far. 

But raise at least their mutton, beef and pork, 

And pleasure horses, if not those for work. 

By all these various means the land receives 

More of her cereals' ashes than it gives : 

Hence its abundant yield and heavy cover, 

And fields and owners live alike in clover. 



26 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Long may they do so ! long the old mansions stand, 
Surrounded year by year with finer land ! 
Long the old hospitality remain, 
Supplied each season from a richer plain ! 
And nobler structures to the old succeed, 
As those round Dover now and fair Belmead ! 
But would you have a narrow belt of land 
Along the rivers with its mansions grand, 
And the rolling region spreading wide between. 
With people sparse, with lands and houses mean. 
And horses, cattle, every creature lean ? 

Nor in this state could matters long remain — 
Who'ld pay the taxes, who the poor maintain ? 
Who'ld fill the churches, who the school-house fill, 
And who the ranks when the militia drill ? 
0, no ! the country of a prosperous race 
Must numbers have proportioned to its space ; 
Without this there's nor strength nor progress either, 
And e'en its civilization's doomed to wither; 
For men, weak singly, all their power find 
In the energy of numbers well combined : 
The more their numbers, better their combination, 
The more their power, higher their civilization. 
The combination 's perfect when you find 
Employments suited to each hand and mind, 
And hands enough to work what heads devise, 
For every human good beneath the skies. 
The civilization 's perfect which enjoys 
Tiie fruits of all the labour man employs. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 27 

Still the foundation of the bliss, which toil 
And art, and wisdom bring, is in the soil. 
However high in air the fruit may grow, 
'Tis nourished by its root in earth below ; 
Therefore the way to make a nation strong, 
To make it happy and be happy long. 
To make it to each good and joy give birth, 
Is to take care, of all things, mother earth ; 
Let not the white man a destroyer come 
To this new world, his refuge and his home, 
]3ut keep at least as fertile all her lands 
As he received them from the Indians' hands. 
This hoAv to effect, and even to restore 
Those which, alas ! are made already poor. 
The rules above inculcated may show ; 
Yet that's but half a farmer ought to know. 
How to enrich the ground by these are taught, 
Xot how its treasures from it should be wrouffht. 
What cultivation makes the cereals yield 
The greatest crop and leasts exhausts the field, 
How labour may be best economized 
On the smoked weed from planting until prized ; 
What various roots in various climates grow. 
And upon each what culture to bestoAv — 
What breed of herds to low upon his plain, 
What kind of team to cultivate his grain ; 
Of all the various swine Avhich best to keep. 
And what the fairest flock of fleecy sheep ; 
AVhat fruits should in his orchard most abound, 
What vegetables fill his garden ground ; 



28 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

(For 'tis a mountain adage worth receiving, 

That a good garden makes one half your living ;) 

Clothed in what turf hov/ far to spread your lawn, 

What trees and flowers your dwelling should adorn ; 

How group the evergreens to break the storm, 

And make the winter with their colours warm ; 

To have the holly's scarlet berries glow. 

And varnished foliage glitter through the snow, 

While sheltering cedars with their azure store 

Of food for birds, attract them to your door. 

And give a glimpse of summer to your eyes, 

While Avinter hangs around his leaden skies. 

All this and more, too numerous to tell. 

The country gentleman should study well ; 

But they are secondary, and little worth. 

In comparison, to keeping rich the earth. 

This, I entreat you, strive for now ; 0, save 

Virginia's soil from desolation's grave I 

Unless to this the farmer's efforts tend. 

The more his skill, the worse his labours end ; 

For as Avith greater art the plough is sped. 

The more the yield, and more the land is dead. 

Saved from this fate, I feign Avould help to show 
The modes the best to make its products grow, 
And other things that farmers ought to knoAV ; 
But this must be reserved for another time, 
For that 's arrived at Avhich to end this rhyme. 
It was a labour of love, for all I Avrote 
Was but our country's interest to promote — 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 



29 



That of the farmer first, and then of those 

Who on the farmer's interests repose — 

That is of all — for either last or first, 

All at this planet's generous breast is nurs'cl — 

Repay the filial debt with liberal hand, 

And thus with good and glory crown the land. 



Paet II., 
BY CHTARLES CARTER LEE: 

Read at the Meeting op the Club, held at Calais, the 
Residence of 

MADISON SUBLETT, ESQ., 

August 6th, 1858. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

P*AilT II. 



In man's allotted life how great the change ! 
Those live who knew our mountains' sheets of range : 
(I use the word range in the local sense. 
Which means the growth of herhage, not the expanse ;) 
Oft have I heard a gray-haired mountaineer 
Tell when through pea-vine he could track a deer, 
And how clear were the streams when first he knew them, 
And how far salmon trout he could see through them. 

But man came with his cow, the range grew worse, 
Consumed by civilization's four-legged nurse — 
And wilderness and game fell further back, 
As onward followed that portentous track. 
Announcing as it went the axe's sound. 
And that of forests falling to the ground. 
And of the limbs of those the elements felt. 
Erect in death from the axe-girdled belt. 

Thence, now no more the mountains wild and strange, 
Around Burke's Garden hang in sheets of range ; 
No more the broken pea-vine shows where ran 
A doe along the meadows of the Dan ; 
3 



o4 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

And of their salmon treasures almost void 

Are half the sparkling streams of beauteous Floyd. 

Yet full of blessings is the realm you far see, 
Linking its mountain chains from Lee to Hardy ; 
(jame still abounds, though not so plenteous now 
As when their pastures never knew the cow, 
And fish of crimson spots or silver scales 
Enrich the rivers of the wooded vales, 
x\.nd flocks and herds there feeding like the deer, 
With a game flavour please the mountaineer. 
And 0, the milk and the potatoes there ! 
Well might the Frenchman call these pommes de terre, 
For in perfection there, among the fruits 
Of earth 'tis fitlier classed than with its roots. 
But of all spots the shores of our great rivers 
Were the most genial to the highest livers. 
Besides all that the forest could supply, 
There was the field, and there the river nigh — 
Deer, partridges, wild turkies, hare and pheasant, 
Fish of all sorts, and wild foAvl — 0, how pleasant ! 
The seine on every suiaimer's day would pour 
The river's glittering treasures on its shore. 
And through the winter scarce a dinner lack, 
The table's richest treat, the canvass-back — 
Though rivalled by the fish of shells, not fins, 
Soft crabs, and 0, salt-water terrapins ! 
Oysters, of course, for breakfast, dinner, supper, 
Both cooked and raw, with vinegar and pepper. 

Now of all these the superabundance 's gone, 
And so, alas ! of timber and of corn ; 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 35 

But for our losses more perhaps is gained, 
The land is cleared, the government's ordained — 
And for the virgin treasures of the soil, 
'Tis loaded o'er with drops of glorious toil. 

think, what precious dust Virginia owns ! 
More than all that of Europe's crumbled thrones, 
And Asia's, and the kings who sat thereon ! 
It owns the dust of great George Washington, 
And his co-labourers in peace and war. 
Who set in Hope's horizon a new star. 
Nigh kin to that which led the wise of old 
The Saviour in His manger to behold ; 
For this reveals to earth from its new zone. 
More fully that for which the other shone — 
The right of private judgment, of free thought 
On all the revelation th' other brought. 
That every one should bear with every other, 
And cherish, love, respect him as a brother. 
If from the earth we've ravished her supplies. 
We've brought to bless her, maxims from the skies ; 
And this fair realm to which we owe our duty, 
Between the Atlantic wave and " River of Beauty," 
If not on earth the richest or the best. 
Expands to temperate skies a generous breast, 
Teeming within and glorious to behold. 
And full of treasures precious as its gold. 
" Make me another world," (I say outright,) 
" Of one entire and perfect crysolite, 
I'M not exchange her for it." I have tried 
Places where interest prompted to reside ; 



36 VIRGINIA aEOKGICS. 

In the Empire City had a happy station, 
And in the virgin wild of the Chickasaw Nation, 
And thus tried both ends of our civilization : 
The old world in New York the new one meets. 
And their united pleasures crown her streets. 
An Indian song says that " the Chickasaw Nation 
Is far the finest place in the whole creation;" 
And that "a great big wife and little plantation" 
Make a paradise in the Chickasaw Nation. 
But in both these extremes content did I miss, 
And found it true in medio tutissimus ibis : 
And after all, at least for us born in here, 
The best of realms would be our own Virginia, 
If for what all our ancestors have done 
To make her of all lands the noblest one, 
"We who of their high toils such fruits have tasted. 
Should to the soil restore what they have wasted. 

Some rules for this I heretofore have rhymed. 
With the round world's experience fully chimed ; 
With these neglected nothing else avails. 
To serve to carry them out I now give some details. 

He farms his land the best, there 's no doubt of it. 
Who puts the most into, and gets most out of it. 
And he the very worst, whose land receives 
The least return for the amount it gives. 
This truth engraved forever in the mind. 
To act it out we must the methods find 
Best suited to the climate and the soil, 
And our resources as to cash and toil. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 37 

I'll take a common case with very good fellows, 
The case of lands and owners out at the elbows — 
Half waiters upon Providence, looking about 
For something to turn up ere they turn out. 

Reduce the area of your cultivation, 
And add a * sixth field to the present rotation ; 
The pasture thus enlarged you can increase 
The stock that gives the milk and yields the fleece, 
And from the dairy's buttery overflow 
In greater numbers fatter pigs may grow ; 
And what is more important, all the while 
You are adding to the fertilizing pile. 
That is the magiium opus, the great task, 
Stick but to that, the rest will come at last. 

The sixth field in the plan I'd now make known, 
Comes after corn, at its last ploughing sown 
Broad-cast in peas, of such as will keep sound 
Throughout the winter on the naked ground ; 
There may be many such, and, may-be, finer 
Than the old black pea of North Carolina — 
A sister State indeed, old Rip Van Winkle, 
Whose agricultural stars, like ours, twinkle — 
Whose Aries, Taurus, and her Crab and Fishes, 
Much as our own, fill her successive dishes. 
If there be better than this black pea, sow it. 
If not, sow this, 'twill answer well, I know it. 
When the corn's gathered, turn in all your stock, 
The lowing herd, the swine, the fleecy flock, 

* See note 1 — Part II. 



38 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

And the hard-working team, on days of rest, 
Would find them in this plenteous pasture blest ; 
The vines consumed, the larger stock remove, 
But sheep and swine, long as they last will love. 
When snows allow, and sunny hours please. 
To nibble through the winter on the peas. 
By this means the exhaustion from the corn 
Is to the ground returned when winter 's gone. 
Then all the fertilizers you can rake. 
And scrape, and purchase, to this same field take 
On the foulest part all from your stables throw, 
For your tobacco, if the weed you grow, 
If not, for spring root crops the pile bestow, 
For carrots, mangel-wurzel, sugar beet. 
To feed the stock that yields us wool and meat. 
And food for the starved land, to cover over 
Her naked hills with golden coats and clover. 
The balance sow in oats — remove the best 
Parts from the land, and on it feed the rest. 
Where the keen scythe has swept the oats away, 
Sow ruta-bagas — guano'd well, they'll pay ; 
And on the stubble this crop does not cover. 
Just run your sheep and cow-pens lightly over, 
Littering well as you can, and thus repay 
More than the crop of oats has taken away. 
Then, in the fall, sow the whole field in wheat, 
With guano, or without, as may be meet, 
And ere the winter's frost is fully over. 
Sow liberally the whole in clean red clover. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 31' 

Thus you will have two fields in wheat, and two 
In clover, (one its clover to renew, 
Turned in to feed the cereal sown thereon, 
And one for pasture,) one in Indian corn, 
Succeeding pasture, and the sixth, the field. 
The life of all, the mighty crop to yield 
And to receive, the staff of vegetation — 
I name as in manure, in this rotation, 
For all from last fall's peas to this fall's cereal 
Was grown to increase the fertilizing matei"ial. 
Directly strown on it, or to he ta'en 
Away to be returned increased again. 

From this sixth field the farmer's strength is known, 
Here lies his secret, his philosopher's stone. 
Cleared by two spring crops coming in succession, 
And then to wheat and clover given possession. 
Few noxious weeds the harvest will infest, 
And scarce a briar rankle in its breasi. 
But all its strength be euiployed to mantle over 
Itself with golden grain and purple clover. 

Well here's a start ; and this revolved rotation 
Will in due time restore the waste plantation ; 
The savage galls will yield to civil men. 
And what is broom-straw now be clover then. 

But to this process greater speed to give. 
To abridge the wretched space in debt to live, 
Soonest to see that happiest morrow's sun. 
That which ne'er looks on an unwelcome dun, 
There are great rules of great economy's practice, 
For leading maxims in the farmer's tactics. 



40 VIRGINIA GBORGICS. 

Yes, great Economy ! The Almighty One, 
The Maker of the earth, and moon, and sun, 
And all the stars, and all that all inherit, 
Proclahns through all his works this virtue's merit. 
All things in his eternal scheme embraced. 
Create and save without a drop of waste ; 
But man, poor perishable beggar boy. 
Feels privileged to scatter and destroy. 
Take care of the pence and all the pounds you'll have, 
No minute lose, the hours themselves will save — 
Preserve the waste of kitchen, house and dairy, 
Of ashes, soap-suds, wood-pile earth be chary ; 
From every garden weed its value draw. 
Nor give to total loss one blade of straw, 
And you'll add much more than you think you are able 
To the great treasures of the pen and stable. 

Deem you this a small business ? Think what God 
Does to preserve the wealth of every clod, 
Of every thing that dies and springs up after. 
Of every grain of sand and drop of water ! 
A single drop, the learned say, gives birth 
To creatures more than there are men on earth, 
And relatively in size, in this small house. 
They diifer more than elephant and mouse. 
And for what are these little sentinels placed 
In inconceivable numbers ? To save waste. 
To seize on every fugitive that passes 
From organized existence to the gasses. 
And press it in some shape new life to wear. 
Instead of wandering wasted into air. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 41 

If the great God in His great works delight 
Agents to use too small for naked sight, 
How stupid in poor little man to despise 
Appointed means apparent to his eyes ! 

God, who regards not things as large or as small, 
Is wondrous alike in the infinite and infinitessmal ; 
But man, with mind so dark and strength so brittle, 
Fails in great things because he spurns the little. 

Then recollect, in farming, all the schools 
Teach nothing better than economy's rules — 
By these be guided in whate'er you do. 
Manuring, cultivating, breeding too. 
Waste no manure, your labour, save it all, 
And breed such stocks as have the offal small. 
Purchase no implement at fancy cost. 
Nor those in working which there's labour lost ; 
But make your money and your labour go 
Far as they can to make your profits grow. 

On the Potomac doth a mansion * stand 
Whose walls were built of brick from old England ; 
Eight chimneys formed two summer houses' pillars, 
From which were seen Potomac's sun-like billows : 
Tall Lombardy poplars in lengthened row. 
Far o'er the Avoods a dwelling's signal show, 
A pillar of cloud by day to guide the stranger 
To a generous board, and his horse to a good manger. 
This was the old seat of the Lees, renowned 
For what none else can boast of on the ground — 

* See note 2 — Part 11. 



42 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

For being tlie birth place of two of the signers 
Of the Declaration of Independence. Mine was 
There too, a circumstance to others worthless, 
But much to me, for I'm fond of my birth-place, 
And glad the sun first greeted me on earth 
Where the mover of Independence had his birth. 

I think there was a mile of solid wall, 
Surrounding offices, garden, stables and all. 
And on the eastern side of the garden one. 
Pomegranates ripened in the morning sun ; 
And further off, yet sheltered by it, grew 
Figs such as those Alcinous' garden knew. 
And owned, when they increased my childhood's blisses, 
By him who was called the American * Ulysses. 

Yet at the end of this long wall, where played 
So often in the soft pomegranate's shade 
Phil, Tom, Dick, Henry, Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
William and Arthur in their childhood's glee, 
Destined, at length, to be such famous men. 
Was formed of the same structure, a pig pen, 
Perhaps its best description is, 'twas one 
End of the wall shaped to an octagon. 

There from the garden's offal pigs were fed. 
The weeds they would not eat composed their bed, 
And pusley, wire-grass, hog-weed, cabbage-stalks, 
And outside leaves and grass cleared from the walks. 
Yea, allthe garden's offil they would pour 
Into that pen for food or for manure. 

* See note 3 — Part II. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS, 43 

I, at my Windsor, (how unlike the retreats, 
At once the Monarch's and the Muses' seats, 
Pope celebrated,) have by experiment that showed 
To neighbours, what my childhood learned at Stratford, 
That from the offal of the gardener's work. 
There may be made jfive hundred weight of pork, 
And a good dressing, one time carried o'er 
The garden, of the very best manure. 

In the old time old folks did not despise, 
E'en if pound foolish to be penny wise ; 
And penny wisdom, as 'tis plain to see, 
Makes the great income of economy. 
'Tis this same wisdom the mechanics show 
Who make the plough with least resistance go, 
Who make the winnowing engines easiest turn, 
And labour with least loss its profits earn. 

0, glorious race of the contriving brain. 
And skillful hand to make contrivance gain ! 
If Vulcan won from his forge divinity, 
0, what must Watt and what must Fulton be ! 
What the inventors of our great horse powers. 
Portable mills and threshers, reapers and mowers. 
And the under-draining pipes and implements, 
And the thousand things which that great brain inyents ? 
Remember, all ye tillers of the soil, 
That there is a great brotherhood of toil, — 
Who by their mutual labours live and grow, 
As I sung in my Clay song years ago. 

But the most precious thing that God bestows 
On man, next to his life, is time, it flows 



44 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

For all His perishable creatures to be 
A measured stream from his eternity, 
And in that, as improved or as neglected, 
Comes all that is perverted or perfected. 

The great Napoleon, when his Marshals, tasked 
Too highly as they thought, for more time asked 
To make their vital movements in, replied — 
Time is not mine to give — ask aught beside 
Within this world, and you may hope to receive it — 
But as for time, 'tis not for me to give it. 
And the great cause of his triumphant race, 
Was that at the right time, and proper place, 
He had his forces properly displayed, 
With proper tools all properly arrayed, 
Directed properly to hit the joint 
Of the whole grand campaign, the turning point. 
It was by this that, save Britannia's Isle, 
All Europe bowed before him for awhile ; 
By this from the Old Pyramids he bore 
Such laurels as Sesostris never wore — 
Though Pharmeses the Great, the Egyptians called him, 
The Little Corporal had easily mauled him. 

'Tis by such tactics in their greater battle, 
The farmers wage for food for men and cattle, 
'Gainst briars, broom-straw, gullies, and the unseen 
Causes that make the earth so rude and lean. 
That they must conquer. They must never throw 
An hour away in which a plant should grow, 
Before they give its seed to soil and rain, 
Nor leave a weed an hour upon the plain. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 45 

When of its food it robs the precious grain, 
But all their force at the right time bestow 
In the right place, to make their products grow — 
Armed with the properest implements for the toil. 
Which wins their blessed victories from the soil. 

Another rule is, save what you have made — 
Trust not to chance, of Fortune be afraid, 
The storms and floods come when we least expect, 
And the year's toil is lost by a day's neglect. 

The fruits of punctuality are more charming 
In none of human calling than in farming. 
Nor grass, nor root, nor any cereal grows, 
Save in the allotted time that God bestows ; 
Then 'tis the part of the good husbandman 
To give it all the time to grow he can ; 
Thence the best rule, (and farmers best pursue it,) 
Is, sow and plant soon as His safe to do it. 

'Tis for the punctuality it produces 
That farming by the moon has its good uses — 
Sow that whose fruit above the surface shows 
While the fair moon to its full splendour grows. 
But that whose precious growth the soil contains. 
Plant while the moon from her round circles wanes. 
That's very well, for it makes folk precise 
In conduct where 'tis wisdom to be nice ; 
But when from that they ask of night's sweet maid 
When fences shall be built or hogs be slayed. 
Or whether it is best to make your cider 
When her bright crescent's slenderer or wider, 



46 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Their teachings only serve to make us merry, as 
In bright astronomy did Father O'Leary's : 

*' You say, my hoy, that Father O'Leary teaches 
Science as high as high astronomy reaches ?" 
"Faith, sir, he does." "What of the sun does he say?" 
'• That 'tis the greater light to rule the day." 
"What of the moon ? for as to the sun he is right." 
" Why that's the lesser light to rule the night." 
"And for the stars what does he give as reasons ?" 
" They are for signs of days, and years, and seasons." 
" All very true indeed ! What does he say 
Of that pale splendour called the Milky Way ?" 
" Why, sir, he says that is the place on high. 
Where the ould moons are all spread out to dry." 
So when the moon-ruled cultivators vary 
From truth's record, they are wild as Father O'Leary. 

It is, too, under economy's rules we battle 
In the delightful task of raising cattle. 
Man's pride a frown may gather to his brow 
When told of his dependence on the cow ; 
But yet the history shows of every nation 
Without the cow there is no civilization, 
Save where the Scythians, 'mid equestrian cares, 
Were pleased to live upon the milk of mares — 
And notwithstanding were, as Homer says, 
" Renowned for justice and for length of days." 
So, too, in some tempestuous mountain ilk, 
AVhere cows can't live, the natives use goat's milk, 
And battle against want's and winter's ravages 
So nobly, that we cannot call them savages. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 47 

Yet these are but the exceptions, which the schools 
Say only prove the truth of general rules. 

Hence the Egyptians worshipped cows, for Apis 
Was joined in divine rites with Serapis, 
And through all India nothing more can grieve "her 
Than to maltreat her sacred bulls of Seva, 

In our own land there was a patriarch known, 
Who in the forest held a rural throne, 
Whose greatest joy was through the night to hear 
The growls of bears and frolics of the deer — 
Who in the wilderness, by sun and moon 
Alike his tribute levied, Daniel Boone. 
His sign to move in the forest farther back, 
Was in his hunting grounds a milch cow's track, 
For well he knew of civilization's fine 
March onward, the cow's track was the true sign. 
But why, through proofs inferior far, thus scan 
Dependence on his flocks and herds by man. 
God made a garden for him, 0, how" sweet ! 
And He himself did Plis new creatures meet 
In the dear shades he planted for them ; Oh, 
How strange that beings in this world below. 
Should risk the loss, for a poor serpent's sputtering, 
Of the intense beatitude, past uttering. 
Shed from the face of the Spirit of Love Divine, 
Crowned with the power that bade the stars to shine, 
That man for any pleasure on this clod 
Would loose the rapture of the presence of God ! 
Yet in some sort each day such sight affords 
In those whose way diverges from the Lord's ! 



48 VIRGINIA GEORaiCS. 

Yet in our fallen state, under our drear Nemesis, 
'Tis sweet to turn to the book of Genesis; 
For from the Lord God's lips e'en condemnation 
Was mixed with tenderness, telliug of salvation. 
For He, in proof of his paternal care 
Made us, from skins of animals, clothes to wear — 
Away from Paradise his justice spurned us. 
But to the rule of all His creatures turned us ; 
Giving us the dominion of the earth, 
And of all beings that therein had birth. 

And Abel was a shepherd — Abraham drew 
His wealth from flocks and herds, and Jacob too ; 
And that sweet Psalmist of Israel, he whose sling 
Was powerful to slay, as his harp-string 
Was to enchant and soothe ; for one healed Saul, 
While from the other Goliath had his fall — 
E'en he, when Samuel went to Bethlehem 
To judge of Jesse's sons, and seven of them 
Rejected passed before him, then did keep 
Upon his father's farm his flock of sheep — 
And Samuel from the fold the youth did bring. 
And then anointed him as Israel's King. 

Our modern manners it would rather shock 
To choose for rulers those who tend the flock ; 
But through all time, whate'er mankind avow,, 
Great luxury is the king to which they bow. 
And through all time too, luxury avows 
Its cream is from the udder of the cows. 
Hence the cow claims a homage in our clime. 
Almost as from the Egyptians of old time, 



VIRGINIA GEOKGICS. 49 

For who for dainty dishes rules can utter, 
Of fish, fowl, vegetables, without butter ? 
And -whence of fresh meats comes the daily stock, 
Save from the lowing herd or fleecy flock ? 
Since then to pastoral cares primeval law 
And luxury's self and sweet religion draw, 
The farmer's deaf to nature and wisdom's words. 
If not devoted to his flocks and herds. 
These are the fairest ornaments of his field, 
To painters these their pastoral pictures yield, 
And fathers of the fold and herd have long 
Stalked with its heroes in high epic song. 

But more than rural poetry or beauty 
The farmer must esteem his graver duty ; 
Yet every point of duty he will meet, 
'Tis said, who with the useful blends the sweet ; 
And earth's great Maker shows how well it suits. 
From charming bloom to elaborate charming fruits, 
That's the divine example — all the while 
The blessings ripen as the heavens smile — 
Thus good embraces good from earth to sky. 
And blessings kissing blessings multiply. 

* There was an English yeoman, Bakewell named, 
For breeding sheep and cattle widely famed ; 
In his log house round his huge fire-place met 
Of French and German Dukes a royal set, 
With Russian princes and with English peers, 
And all the various tribes of sight- seers. 

* See note 4 — Part II. 



.60 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

From his last pipe when he the ashes knocked, 
Bed was the word and conversation stopped, 
And mighty ones, round mighty thrones the powers, 
Would there enjoy the charm of early hours. 
Wherefore this princely pilgrimage to one 
Seated at eve before his rude hearth-stone. 
Smoking his pipe when his day's work was done ? 
The conversation these great ones were heeding 
So studiously, was all of cattle breeding ; 
And the great maxim, the result of all 
Their converse was, to " hreed the offal small." 
Put flesh on loins and haunches where 'twill pay, 
And not on shoulders throw it half away ; 
Nor upon legs and neck, and bone and horn, 
Waste hay and turnips, clover, grass and corn, 
But taking from economy's book a leaf. 
Make shilling instead of six-pence mutton and beef. 
Appreciate well Earl Leicester's toast, then shall you 
" Here's to the small in size and great in value !" 
A toast, which when 'twas given, (as you are aware,) 
Made the great graziers of Old England stare. 
And that whole breed of breeders still it shocks, 
Who give a premium to the tallest ox ! 
A thing which makes some laugh, some melancholy, 
But most will now agree 'tis a tall folly. 

The stately cow did Yirgil's Muse resound 
With spreading horns, and tail that swept the ground, 
With lofty tread and long extended waist. 
And ample neck with hanging dew-lap graced, » 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS, 51 

Tossing her armed forehead to the sky, 
And sweeping o'er the plain in majesty. 

But now the shapes the thrifty breeder begs, 
For cows are those that most resemble eggs — 
The horns so short and small they are scarcely seen, 
The legs so too, and the neck thin and clean ; 
In short, the heifer's praise doth brightest flash on, 
Resemble belle's when bustles were in fashion, 
Fair amplitude in beauty's line that true goes. 
And great face and lustrous eyes like Juno's ; 
For the bright queen of the Olympian skies 
Was famed for charming Jove with ox-like eyes, 
Since seldom her Homeric epithets vary 
From white-armed, golden-throned Boopis Airai. 

On the same maxims choose and breed your sheep, 
They will direct you too, what swine to keep ; 
But for their food if these must root and race, 
The best perhaps is the old fiddle-face ; 
Those which the ambush of the rogue can clear, 
And through the forest bound along like deer. 
With plenty of new corn fine flesh they take on, 
And after all make the best flavoured bacon. 
So those who have an ample forest range 
Had better not, perhaps, their old stock change, 
For to shift for themselves in desert places. 
There is no breed like the old fiddle-faces. 
But if your hogs you feed and pasture, all 
Should heed the maxim, "breed the ofial small ;" 
You thus waste least, and a truth well to be known here, 
Is, " optimum vectigal parsimonia" 



52 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Whicli truly teaches, in expense be nice, 

Without descending into avarice. 

For those sunk in that vice are blind and mulish, 

And full of penny wisdom grow pound foolish. 

But sheep have favourites been through all the ages, — 

Job had his flocks, so, too, Chaldea's sages; 

These grouped and named the lights that shine on high. 

And watched the planets wandering in the sky, 

And from these cares, aloof from earthly jars, 

Received the name of Shepherds of the Stars. 

But not the flock on earth their care beneath is. 

While watching that on high with the golden fleeces, 

And hence their souls embraced the ample round 

Which sweeps the sky and rests upon the ground. 

Their care above was the emblem of immensity, 

Their care below the type of innocency: 

Hence to the sages of the East Chaldeans 

One of their shining flock showed the first peans 

Of him divinely born in Bethlehem, 

And to his worship safely guided them ; 

And they rejoiced as by its light they came, 

And found, the spot and bowed before the Lamb. 

And who so fit as these first to be told 

Of the Lamb to take away the sins of the world, 

And what so fit to guide them as a star 

Of the flock they had watched so long and ofi" so far ? 

How harmony divine proves truth divine. 

And in what keeping heavenly wonders shine ! 

After these sweet and sacred associations, 
'Tis stale and flat to refer to classic nations ; 



VIRGINIA GBORGICS. 53 

Yet many a page of human song and Greece is 
Pictured with the fair flock that guides the fleeces, 
And on our farms the eye no picture fills 
Like flocks of sheep wreathed on the rounded hills. 

And then reflect what profits they bestow 
Besides the wool and mutton ; pastures grow 
The better for their brewing ; briar, bush, weed, 
On which the cows and horses will not feed, 
Nibbled by them to the sweet grasses yield, 
And thus more stock can live upon the field ; 
Added to this the farmers' best advisers 
Pronounce none better than their fertilizers : 
A thousand sheep will every night manure 
An acre of land, and make it rich from poor. 

Great praise is due to our State Society 
For making known of sheep a large variety. 
But greater to the liberal members of it, 
Who brought their samples to its Fairs to prove it. 

To praise one's friends is what we don't admire, 
But yet the labourer's worthy of his hire — 
And when the State such benefit receives 
From French Merinoes, shall we not thank Rives, 
Who, 'midst diplomacy's absorbing courses. 
Yet brought us them, and Cleveland Bay stock-horses ? 
And when at Cotswold's fat and wool we stare. 
Shall we forget the importer. Col. Ware ? 
And for the South-down sheep, the best of any 
Brought to our shores, shall we not thank Dulany ? 

Yes, let us thank them more than by words merely. 
By aiding in improvements bought so dearly. 



54 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Then will their care and cost be well repaid, 
Since for their country's good it was outlaid. 

When Bishop Meade, who had to England travelled, 
Was asked at what therein he chiefly marvelled. 
He did not one in doubt a moment keep, 
But answered, " Windsor Castle and Webb's sheep ;" 
Almost the best of these Dulany bought, 
And to the New the Old World's wonders brought. 

But while bestowing thanks 'twere shame to flinch 
From pouring ours out to gallant Lynch. 
Who does not joy when he beholds a Kaisi 
Stalk o'er the plain, to recollect the navy, 
If as a bull, from Juno's wrath to slip, 
Jove for Europa played the part of a ship. 
On which she sailed to the far shore, now famed 
Above the world, and from Europa named. 
Why should not Lynch's precious gifts avail us 
For fond mementoes of our gallant sailors. 
The stripes and stars did a new glory gain 
From Jordan and the Cities of the Plain, 
Dissolved to the Dead Sea, where sluggish waves 
Gave up their secrets to our naval braves. 
From sacred Palestine their Captain's thought 
For his own land a lasting blessing wrought ; 
What more appropriate ? what could overspread 
Her hills and valleys like the Kaisi's tread ? 
And what could his Virginia prouder own 
Than cattle whose full udders fed St. John ? 

But to return to sheep ; with those which take well 
1 rank the old cross of Broad-tails and Bakewell. 



VIRGINIA GEOBGICS. 55 

And in the Marshall Manor have been put on 
Saddles as good of these as any mutton — 
Unless some South-downs from his wolf and bear lands, 
Which we had during Christmas at Macfarland's ! 

Bjron has said, (indeed 'twas said before, 
But having his authority why add more ?) 
" The happiness of man, the hungry sinner, 
Is very much dependent on his dinner," 
And even Dr. Johnson used to say 
Dinner was the chief hour of the day. 
I've told what other goods the sheep produces, 
And who at dinner does not feel his uses ? 
Who to ride down his appetite can straddle 
Any thing better than a South-down saddle ? 
Or a boiled leg with capers seasoned well ? 
Or good as either, chops au naturel ? 

Thus if for beauty or for use you keep 
Stock on your farm none's better than the sheep. 
And foreigners who roam our country through 
Are struck that our plantations have so few. 
Might I advise, I'd say, keep twice as many 
As is habitual on the land of any : 
" Gives not the haw-thorn bough a sw^eeter-shade," 
(As Shakespeare's almost sacred verse hath said,) 
" To Shepherd's gazing on their silly sheep 
Grazing the vales, or on the hills asleep. 
Than doth the rich embroidered canopy 
To kings ?" It doth, and still so may it be ! 
For greater numbers in the low are found, 
And thence on earth its blessings more abound. 



56 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

To liorse ! To horse ! 0, what a stirring cry ! 
A horseman shares the Twins that mark the sky 
As the gorgeous constellation, Gemini ; 
Brothers of Helen, " famed for martial force, 
One great on foot and one renowned for horse." 
What were a king without the pageantry 
Of chariot and horse, and dazzling cavalry ? 
0, what had been the glories of old war ? 
What had Achilles been without his car ? 
And " Xanthus and Balius of immortal breed, 
Sprung from the wind and like the wind in speed." 
The conquerors of the world first dawned on us 
In taming a wild horse, Bucephalus — 
And what without his charger to be on. 
Had been old England's hero, Coeur de Lion ? 
What were from Richard's half-broke dream the sounds ? 
'• Grive me another horse ! bind up my wounds !" 
And what as clouds came the morning o'er his course? 
" A horse ! a horse ! my kingdom for a horse !" 

Although before from the great Pyramid's crown 
Eour hundred centuries had in praise looked. down, 
Yet where the great Napoleon proudest sits 
Is on his horse in the field of Austerlitz. 
What old world monument of time's long course 
Is fairer than Aurelius on his horse ? 
What new world monument hath honor's mead 
Like ours of Washington upon his steed ? 

Forgive if praise of the horse I too far carry, 
For my own sire was famed as Light-horse Harry ; 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 57 

And our old Commonwealth hath no remorses, 
In peace or war, connected with her horses. 

Nor can I be accused of boasting when 
I say she hath none connected with her men. 
0, No ! I appeal to Massachusetts' Bay, 
When Liberty in her sweet cradle lay ; 
I appeal to our bright sister, South Carolina, 
In those old times when nothing could out-shine her ; 
I appeal to all the beloved lands between. 
To all the virtuous, glorious old Thirteen, 
If in discharging duties owed within there 
Any e'er beat their loving sister * Virginia ? 
0, then, why feel thus hostile to us now ? 
Love, brightest gem in the crown of the Christian's brow, 
Sweetest of all the ties that bind the heart ! 
But when thou blondest realms how grand thou art ! 
And when the United States as one you tie, 
'Tis as the Constellations band the sky ! 

We had one more than the signs of the Zodiac, 
One more than the starred stages of earth's track, 
0, think of this as the beginning given 
Of more on earth than erst portrayed in heaven, 
And hope the promise to the chosen nation 
Will be fulfilled in the Tolerant civilization ; 
That's it — 0, that is the thing upon this clod 
Of earth most after the own heart of God. 

I've wandered from my theme, forgive, I pray it ! 
I hear such strange things of the Union's fate — 

* See note 5 — Part II. 



58 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

I've heard that people who have loved to bless 
This land for Washington's Farewell Address, 
Who raise his monuments high in their skies, 
Yet whisper death to his loved Union's ties ! 
May they die first ; 0, yes, be theirs the death 
Before this world is tainted with their breath ; 
And if their sin be in the next forgiven, 
'Twill be the greatest pardon named in heaven, 
Unless at Mercy's ever open door, 
Judas Iscariot's shall be signed before. 

To thoughts like these which my tossed soul expands. 
How can I give instructions about lands ? 
When all the hopes of earth in my mind's eye 
Come trooping to her Fane of Liberty, 
And I behold the inhabitants enjoying 
The shelter they are wantonly destroying ; 
what's the use of labouring to give birth 
To agricultural rules to till the earth ? 

No ! if the Union dies then let us die. 
Defending its last ditch there let us lie ! 
Beneath no other flag let us wage wars 
Save that emblazoned with the stripes and stars — 
And let no tAvinkler of its azure sky 
Pale from its field before it sees us die. 

It seems to me I could not alive remain 
And see that glorious banner rent in twain ! 
But 0, let me entreat, as from a brother. 
Ye bannered stars smile sweet on one another. 
For know, for all the world's political fates, 
Hope's constellation is the United States ; 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 



59 



And Hope's antagonist feels no drop of dew on 
Her fevered sleep, save in dreams of disunion. 

Adieu ! on nothing else now can I dwell — 
Some other day some other things to tell, 
Perhaps it may be meet — but now Farewell ! 



iwMt 



Paet III., 
BY CHARLES CARTER LEE: 

Read at a Meeting of the Club, held at Level Green, thk 
Residence op 

HENRY HOLMAN, ESQ., 

September 3rd. 1S5S. 



VIRGINIA GEORGES. 
Part III. 



The angels visit now no more this world, 
No heavenly pinions on its hills are furled — 
Yet we may fancy how 'twould strike their view, 
Compared with times when erst its face they knew. 

A little planet with a moon to play 
Around her as she walks the solar way. 
And on her regions shaded by the night 
To peep, and from her crescent sprinkle light, 
Now they would see exactly as of yore. 
From the high empyrean's star-veiled door. 
When this magnificent veil aside was thrust. 
And passed the Milky Highway's stellar dust, 
And to Orion's belted glories come. 
Where his dog, Syrius, has his glorious home. 
There where the Earth and Moon in May charms melt, 
As they wheel by the sign of the Sword and Belt, 
Though so much nearer, yet the angel eyes 
Would see them as when first they graced the skies ; 
Still nearer borne, the oceans would appear, 
Their silver azured by the atmosphere — 



64 VIRGINIA GEOEGICS. 

And next the mountain-girdled land they'd see, 

Majestic with its ocean drapery, 

And turhaned snows, incrusted gem on gem 

Of ice, for its eternal diadem. 

Still nearer wafted on their wings, the earth 

Would to their heavenly ken reveal the birth 

Of all things in the sea and on the land, 

And those which in the air their wings expand ; 

Then they'd behold the dolphins in their glee. 

And whales to spouting fountains turn the sea ; 

Then would they see majestic in their tread. 

The earth with noble creatures overspread 

Much as of yore ; and the gay-flitting things. 

That charm the world with song and painted wings, 

And spend their lives in love and in the chase, 

The sport and envy of the human race — 

These, save in lessened numbers, they would find, 

As in their earliest visits to mankind. 

But these, the objects of the heavenly care, 
Which sent the angels from the starry sphere, 
How would they find them now with those compared 
Who first the earth among their races shared ? 
What progress have they made their lives to bless 
In virtue, arts, and chiefly happiness ? 
Are heroes now more than Achilles brave, 
Or more than Pauliis would their country save ? 
Do modern conquerors more with love enchain us, 
For their high souls, than Scipio Africanus ? 
Doth earth a nobler, tenderer couple see 
Now, than were Hector and Andromache ? 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 65 

And friendsliips — 'do our modern histories name one 

Firmer than that of Pythias and Damon ? 

Of happy lives — are any happier read 

Than that Alcinous and Areta led ? 

And of what family now can we say this is 

In well tried worth beyond that of Ulysses ? 

Save through what Christianity imparts 
To soften the hard grain of human hearts, 
Man is but little happier or better 
Than when Bellerophon bore the treacherous letter ; 
This I maintain, not fearing who may maul me, 
With extracts from the volumes of Macaulay. 
Though most to praise, yet to dispraise him some tug, 
And say his sparkling page is touched with humbug. 
Me to say aught 'gainst what's so grand it bothers, 
But, may-be, he may make mistakes like others. 
To a friend * in our own land he hath lately written 
How much his heart with joy is daily smitten : 
That to his Library his footsteps pass 
Across a little plot of his own grass. 
0, how I wish that a grand Western prairie 
Were spread before his door to charm him daily. 
But why ? That library with knowledge rife 
Stands by his grass-plot like "the tree of life," 
High, eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit 
"Of vegetable gold." It best doth suit 
Him to be near its branches, to be able 
To feed the world with fruits imperishable. 



* The Hon. Edward Everett. 



\ 

66 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

He may be sm-e, however nobly looks 

This out-door world, he's better at his books. 

The arts, 'tis true, have wondrous progress made ; 
But why ? To fill the void of what's decayed. 
And Avhat doth science but supply the wants 
Made by itself for which the spirit pants ? 
When she informs us how the heavens are high. 
She but removes us further from the sky. 
In the old time of man and angels' love. 
The bright-winged beings seemed not far above. 
They came down in the morn, and towards eve, 
After repast and converse, took their leave ; 
Now it must take their wings, though swift as light, 
Two thousand years to fly from Sirius' height. 

The system of the Maker of realms and nations, 
Is one of justice, that is, compensations ; 
A loser here, you are a gainer there. 
And when the balances are struck all's square. 
Of course I speak not of particular cases, 
But the great averages of the great races. 

So of the arts, their progress but supplies, 
As they increase on us, necessities. 
When men were few, and all things else abundant. 
The service of the horse had been redundant — 
He was not worth the trouble, first of taking. 
And next, of the far greater trouble, breaking ; 
So late to avarice did he wake enchantment 
That he's not mentioned in the tenth commandment. 
Which, while it tells us not to covet asses 
Nor oxen, o'er the horse neglectful passes. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 67 

But when the families had spread afar, 
And children wished to visit their papa — 
And pride began to play her pompous card, 
They thought the ass went slow, the camel hard, 
So for these first necessities they fain 
Would mount the new one with the flowing mane. 
And honor crowned the first horse-tamer's brow, 
As engineers and electricians now. 
Indeed the horse is said, down to this hour. 
To furnish man with his best animal power, 
For in the plough, the chariot, or the course. 
In peace or war, there's nothing like the horse. 
Whence he first sprung no histories contain — 
We meet him first on Egypt's wondrous plain ; 
In the great famine, to supply their losses 
Of grain, the people sold to Joseph horses — 
And when his father would be buried far 
From Egypt, in the cave of Machpelah, 
Where Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah slept, 
And where at Leah's burial he had wept, 
The pious son there bore the patriarch's corse. 
In solemn pomp of chariot and of horse. 

And Thebes, the empress of a hundred States, 
Which poured her soldiers through a hundred gates, 
Sent through each portal to her glorious wars. 
Two hundred heroes with their steeds and cars. 
Now through the world, his merit fully known. 
He serves alike the cottage and the throne. 

How beauteous horses in their natural state ! 
Fiery and wild, but yet afi'ectionate : 



68 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Howe'er their numbers dwindle or increase, 
They live together in perpetual peace — 
In social love they share the food they have, 
Their only strife who first shall danger brave, 
Who foremost down the precipice shall leap. 
Or stem the foaming torrent wild and deep. 

But full of courage and of strength they stoop, 
Obedient to the leader of the troop. 
They know, as would all know within these lands, 
Their safety only with their union stands : 
A secret instinct teaches them to know 
His orders, and by these they ever go — 
By these, when danger comes, the strongest form 
Around the mares and foals, to brave its storm, 
And the assailing foe directly reels 
Beneath the fatal battery of their heels. 
And sometimes when the lions come they close 
In solid column to destroy these foes, 
Upon them rush and tramp them to the ground. 
And drown their roarings with the thunder's sound. 
How glorious is the flickering of their manes 
While sweeping thus o'er their old Scythian plains, 
Or, on their foes in larger masses hurled 
O'er their fresh pastures in the Western world ! 
No tossing surges such a sight could be 
As this bright whirlwind of wild cavalry. 

But to the powers which God in man implants, 
What's that of tigers, lions, elephants ? 
He came to the wild horse, his whirlwinds broke, 
His thunders tamed, and bowed him to his yoke ; 



VIRGINIA GEOEGICS. 69 

The docile, generous creature, altered then 
His habits, to subserve the wants of men, 
His nature bowed from his primeval end, 
To his great master to be slave and friend. 

Behold him now upon our wasted lands. 
How high in bone, how low in flesh he stands ! 
Sore-backed perhaps, his lofty pride appalled, 
His breast with collar, rump with breech-bands galled, 
With scarce of his original self one trace, 
The measure of gratitude in the human race ! 

0, Grod ! can we, thj children, be forgiven, 
While we beseech thee, as our Father in Heaven, 
To give us daily bread, and to forgive 
The trespasses in which we daily live, 
Eor thus abusing what thy bounty grants 
In such a noble creature to our wants ? 

Yet such a horse appropriately stands 
A wasted monument of wasted lands ; 
Galled like the hills, poor as the valleys by him, 
And joy to naught but buzzards as they eye him. 

A Yankee among us, where a crowd was gathered 
And grouped around tlieir wretched ponies tethered. 
Remarked : " I guess there's a horse factory about here." 
" I reckon in your guess you are rather out there," 
Some one replied ;. " what put that in your brains ?" 
^^Wull, I thought so from all these here horse frames." 
A pretty good reproof this Yankee gave us. 
From long deserving which humanity save us ! 

0, with what gladness would I write this verse 
Could it engender kindness for the horse ! 



I 



70 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Our friend, our servant, our dear children's joj, 
Who helps us to produce, preserve, destroy. 
Who to our wishes yields unbounded sway, 
And often rather dies than disobey ! 

Brave, faithful creature ! 'tis not strange the whims 
Of Swift placed man beneath his hu-hu-hyms ! 
Mankind are heathens, hating one another, 
While horses, like true Christians, love each other. ' , 

But our poor lands impoverish men, and they 
Can't help themselves, and the poor horses pay : 
Thus I return to my song's burden, which 
Is, till no land unless to have it rich, 
But in this tillage you must choose if you'll 
Chiefly adopt the ox, or horse, or mule. 

I'm pleased to recollect that General Mason 
Was kind enough his friendship me to place on ; 
He was a son of our great George the Second, 
Tor none with the " Old Horse" * can e'er be reckon'd. 
And these great Georges neighbours were, and friends. 
And strove in concert for mankind's true ends. 
The second equalled not the first in fights. 
But was chief author of the Bill of Rights — 
A farmer he was, too, but I must avow 
More eminent with the pen than with the plough ; 
Through him this son was early introduced 
To our realm's men most praised and most abused. 
Had shaken hands with all our Chiefs of State, 
And dined at President Jefierson's " dinners of eight" 

* See note 1 — Part III. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. _ 71 

Habitually, and after dinner would go back 
To his own beauteous isle in the Potomac. 
In its sweet walks, far from their foreign home, 
Illustrious guests did often love to roam ; 
And the last King of France returned his thanks 
For pleasures gathered on its flowery banks — 
On his high throne he thought of his exile. 
And how 'twas softened in that fairy isle. 

The General 'mid his city life, so charming. 
And cares more lucrative, was fond of farming. 
And 'mid the sparkling of the glasses, poured 
Full of glad wine around his generous board, 
The conversation he would often turn 
On how the farm could best its profits earn. 
He told me it was oft asserted then. 
By the most eminent New England men, 
That their sea-coast, when settled, was too poor 
The expensive labour of the horse to endure. 
And that without the ox's cheaper toil. 
The white man ne'er had flourished on its soil. 
In short, without the labours of the ox. 
We ne'er had Yankee notions known, nor clocks ; 
This animal so slow hath from that clime 
To all the nations measured precious time. 
If so, the glory of Bunker's Hill, so dear, 
We owe to the cheap labour of the steer. 
And all the blessings on New England's rocks. 
So firmly based, come from the labouring ox. 

These inferences, more curious than wise. 
May be ; but great from little things arise. 



72. VIRGIlSriA GEOEGICS. 

As we learned from our school books long ago, 
When taught what oaks from little acorns grow, 
And what great rivers from small fountains flow. 

The horse likewise, except to serve the king 
In Palestine, was a forbidden thing ; 
His labour was too costly for the soil. 
The Kaisi cattle furnished cheaper toil. 

These are illustrious teachings, strongly in favour 
Of having on the farm the cheapest labour. 
And when the toiling ox and horse comparing 
In price, in food, in housing, and in gearing. 
And the unloading of the cart and wagon, 
I say, stick to the steers, though slow they drag on, 
For where the distances are not too long. 
The ox is best ; for if not swift he's strong. 

The best plantation on the yellow, curly 
James River, 'tis confessed, is s\teet old Shirley; 
'Tis just below Curl's Neck, and when you wheel, 
An almost full ellipse about Presqu'isle, 
There old Charles Carter lived as good a man 
As the sun saw in his diurnal span ; 
Many remote estates supplied his purses, 
And Shirley food for his and his guests' horses. 
His grandson from it by his tillage gets 
Almost as much as from his vast estates 
His grandsire earned ; but then in those old times 
There was more worth in dollars and in dimes, 
And shall I say in men ? I dare not say so — 
In the Republic better men must grow 



VIKGINIA GEORGICS. 73 

Than those in the Colonial vassalage born, 
Save he and his compeers, George Washington, 
Who, when oppression came, its sceptre broke. 
And never bowed to any human yoke. 

Well, at this long-loved place, where my grand-mother 
Me with her hallowed kisses used to smother, 
I was one summer, while they were threshing wheat, 
And teams of beeves continually I'd meet 
Hauling their precious loads to the machine. 
Which threshed and fanned four hundred bushels clean, 
And often more each day ; and I remarked 
Upon the quantity of oxen worked, — 
When 'twas replied — this labour costs us naught 
Except to break the steers ; for they are brought 
As well to beeves, when they are gently broke, 
As if their necks had never known the yoke ; 
And thus we raise at once for market meat. 
And teams, in rainy times to save our wheat. 
Here is a lesson additional, wherein 
It seems well worth the while to stick a pin. 

But there is animal labour on the farm 
Which oxen cannot half so well perform 
As mules or horses, and 'twill often bother 
When we should choose the one and when the other. 

The*mule is toughest and can better stand 
The rougher usage of the negro's hand. 
His food costs less, for he requires less corn, 
And thrives on herbage which the horses scorn. 
He better too can bear our summer's sun, 
And his to twice a horse's age is spun — 



74 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

A truth that's obvious to all his seers, 

His head being crowned with twice a horse's ears. 

But his first cost is greater, and the trouble 

Of raising him upon our farms is double. 

He's full of whims, too, as an egg of meat, 

Which out of him you cannot wax or beat. 

And a sad consequence of his obstinacy 

Is, that it tempts to useless cruelty ; 

For vain is human rage a mule to daunt. 

For just the more you will the more he won't ; 

This temper creates waste, besides the broil 

Which breaks the harmony that eases toil ; 

And from the labouring team the care removes 

The teamster gives to animals he loves. 

Nor as he grows in age grows he in grace. 

But sinks in sullenness to a snail's pace. 

And yet his independence has its charm, 
And obstinacy is his shield from harm. 
For all the impulses of nature tend. 
Though sometimes hard to see, to some good end 
And how the mule exactly for his duties 
Was formed, is one of Nature's endless beauties. 
Considering his longevity, toughness, rations. 
He's better for the work of large plantations ; 
But on small farms I deem the better course 
Is for us both to use and raise the horse. 

Where beneath burning suns his days are sped, 
'Tis best to have him nearly thorough-bred ; 
His nostril must be ample to inhale 
All that is freshening in the gentlest gale ; 



VIKGINIA GEORGICS. 7B 

For through his mouth, unlike the ox, or man, 
Or almost all earth's lofty creatures, can 
The horse inhale naught that the ether grants 
To cool his heated body as it pants. 
Besides longevity, endurance, spirit. 
Give to the thorough-breds superior merit ; 
And for the saddle, battle, or the chase, 
And above all for the time-honoured race, 
'Twere folly to expend our grain or purses 
On any but the highest breed of horses. 
Unless a pacing pony for the ease 
Of the old man, or little boy to please. 

The objection to this stock is want of size 
For draught, especially where hills are highest. 
And this to overcome the better Avay is. 
Perhaps, to cross them with the Cleveland Bays. 
If lighter weight will do, the better cross is 
Of thorough-bred with stout Canadian horses, 
These are long-lived and active, strong and hearty. 
And "go it on the plank road in two-forty." 

But 'tis in vain of horses, cattle, sheep. 
Or hogs, to choose what stock 'tis best to keep. 
Unless you back your cost and care in buying, 
With equal care in keeping and supplying. 
I've heard old farmers said in " auld lang syne," 
There was more in the breed of corn than swine. 
By which they meant, a greater point in breeding. 
Than choosing first-rate stocks, was first-rate feeding. 
And this is true, and 'tis as great a truth, 
This feeding 's most important in their youth. 



76 viRamiA aEORGics. 

This is not doubted by the largely wise, 
For 'tis a teaching from the illumined skies ; 
'Tis Nature's law, the tenderer the age 
The more the young the mother's care engage. 
The buffalo cow to save her newly born. 
Will in her generous rage the lion horn ; 
And Livingstone tells, superior than to fear, 
He hath known her toss the savage in the air. 
The gentlest animals around our path 
We see maternal care arouse to wrath. 
The careful parent never should allow 
His child to touch the new-born of the cow. 
While wandering near her nest with careless course, 
I've seen a bird attack a grazing horse. 
And even heavenly love its care expressed, 
By a hen's hovering chickens at her breast ; 
And why was this anxiety bestowed ? 
Why bears the mother's breast the tender load ? 
Because without it 'twas foreseen on high 
The tender young must languish and might die. 
Man intervenes and brings them from the haunts 
Prepared by Providence to supply their wants ; 
And would he have them multiply and grow 
As in their natural state, he must bestow 
Such care as was supplied to them or given 
In their own wilds beneath the smile of heaven ; 
E'en with a mother's care, to have them strong, 
Healthy and large, must cherish them while young. 

A saying, compressed into a proverb's span. 
Is, that " the child is father to the man." 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 77 

To reach this truth, the steps if nicely piled 

Would be, the infant's father to the child, 

The child to the boy, the boy to youth's bright span, 

Whose beauteous bloom is ripened into man ; 

And as the fruit's affected by the flower. 

So is the man by childhood's dawning hour. 

'Tis even so with the immortal part. 

The soul and the affections of the heart. 

These with the body, where their glories dwell, 

Teel of a law analogous the spell. 

The spirit bruised in youth, matured is sad, 

A happy childhood makes a manhood glad ; 

A. body, starved and languishing when young, 

Matured is dwarfish and its nerves unstrung. 

'Tis more so with the lower beings of earth, 

Which have no souls to triumph o'er the dearth 

Of what their nature needs, but live and die 

In strict accordance with that needs supply. 

The steps are obvious in their short career — 

The calf to the yearling's father, he to the steer ; 

The scanty food, the freezing blast which shocks 

The weanling's constitution blights the ox — 

A high-boned, big-horned, meagre, wretched thing, 

And the doomed victim of the first hard spring ; 

Thus cold neglect by painful loss is paid. 

Nay, at the door of cruelty is laid. 

And he whose soul to generoas feeling nice is. 

Should shun all taint of this, the v»^orst of vices ; 

For cruelty to man, or beast, or bird. 

By act, neglect, and, to man, e'en by word, 



7;8; VIRGINIA GEORaiCS. 

Is most abhorred in every Christian region. 
As most abhorrent to the true religion. 
Then have a father's care for all you own, 
And to the youngest be it tenderest shone, 
'Tis thus the ways of God on earth we see, 
Who said, " let little children come to me." 

In great Creation's plan a striking feature 
Is found in the analogies of Nature ; 
Its fair, its infinite variety springs 
From endless combinations of few things. * 
The changes in the length of nights and days. 
And of the seasons, which the year displays. 
Come from the plane of the Equator's wrangles 
With the Ecliptic, which it cuts at angles. 
From a few minerals and still fewer gasses 
Come all the treasures which the earth amasses 
Under the genial influence of the sun 
And moon, that circles round her as they run. 
To rule his wonders the Creator draws, 
'Twould seem, around them few and simple laws ; 
But two maintain the balance of the skies. 
One that attracts and one away that flies. 
To govern all the conduct of all men. 
In every phase of live, there were but ten. 
Until the new commandment from above 
Blended the whole in the sweet law of love. 
And so all things that have the varied life. 
With which the air, the earth, the ocean's rife, 

* See note 2 — Part III. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 79 

Have laws analogous, and each supplies 
Similitudes for each that fall and rise. 
The Psalmist likens man in bliss's dreams 
To some fair tree whose life is fed by streams : 
'Twas said by Homer, rhapsodist of Greece, 
Whose honors as the ages roll increase, 
And who, as civilization's flag 's unfurled, 
Will triumph more and more to the end of the world : 
" Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, 
Now green in youth, now withering in the ground, 
Another spring another race supplies, 
They fall successive and successive rise." 
And Milton said the emblem of the curls 
In Eve's bright hair, as 'tis in our sweet girls. 
Was found in the vine's tendrils, which foreshow 
They must rest on supports that stronger grow. 
But rule in truth, while seeming to obey, 
* " With sweet, reluctant, amorous delay." 
And Shakespeare, when a mother's tears were dropped, 
Lest her boy's life should in its bud be nipped, 
Let from her lips in aching rapture Iburst — 
" In Nature's gifts thou may'st with lilies boast, 
And with the half-blown rose;" for nothing meeter 
Than these could paint youth's charms, nor nothing 
sweeter. 
And tears are likened unto dews and pearls, 
And unto hyacinths fresh clustering curls ; 

* See note 3— Part III. 



80 VIKGINIA GEOKGICS. 

And grace In springing girls to waving bowers, 

And beauty in its sweetest bloom to flowers. 

And as attained their charms resembling glow, 

So are the laws alike by which they grow. 

From the twig's growth the tree must take its span, 

Just as the child is father to the man. 

From the young sprouts the cereals have their size, 

Just as the full-grown sheep from lambs arise ; 

And the good farmer care and culture grants. 

Almost alike to animals and plants ; 

His skill to both alike applies the truth, 

The tenderest care must be bestowed in youth. 

As for the yeanling ewes must be prepared 
Succulent food and a well sheltered yard. 
That the young lambs abundant food may draw, 
And sleep in comfort on their beds of straw ; 
So must the tender plants have beds deep-tilled, 
With food prepared for their young rootlets filled, 
Cleansed of each parasital grass and weed, 
Which rob those rootlets of the food they need. 
And when thus well prepared for seed thick-strewn, 
As wheat and barley, rye and oats are sown. 
The cereals on the weeds such start will gain. 
That they will be the sovereigns of the plain. 
But give the land not half the work it needs, 
Nor half the food required for their seeds, 
And the cereals will be routed by the weeds. 

But when you sow, as you should, roots in drills, 
And plant your corn in furrows or in hills. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS, 81 

The space between ■will give the weeds a way 
To invade your plants ; and hence without delay 
You must attack them. In destroying pests, 
Weeds, briars, or whate'er your fields infests, 
Of the truth of the old adage you may be sure, 
"An ounce of prevention's worth a pound of cure." 

In this connection, science is at fault 
How far a fertilizer 's found in salt, 
And how it may be used to kill the weeds' 
That rob the crop which this manure precedes. 
My own conjecture is, though rather loose. 
This mineral may have a double use ; 
Judiciously applied 'twill be a prize for 
Killing out weeds, and as a fertilizer, 
But nice experiment must furnish this test. 
For so far as is known, sub judice lis est. 
We know, for plants whose origin is marine, 
Salt is'manure, and keeps the culture clean ; 
We know, that as to cereals, it creates 
Food for them by dissolving silicates. 
We know, if quantities too large we apply 
To vegetation, root and branch will die. 
And from these facts 'twould seem that we might gain 
In salt, a cleanser and manure for grain. 
I urge the experiment on every man 
Of the Hole and Corner Club of Powhatan. 
Let no one be before us in the knowledge 
Of such a lesson for the farmer's College. 
But while this learning 's being obtained let's practice 
Upon what in good farming a great fact is, 
6 



82 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

That crops should all be safe by deep, clean tillage, 
From having their earliest s23routs exposed to pillage ; 
Accomplish this, each plant then onward speeds. 
And laughs, helped by light working, at the weeds. 
The corn will shoot its tassels to the sky, 
And abject at its feet its enemies lie. 

And of the cereals which our farms adorn, 
Naught is magnificent as a field of corn : 
In April planted, scarce a fortnight shines 
Ere the ploughed land it streaks with verdant lines, 
Before the moon of May hath filled her horns, 
Not waving wheat the landscape more adorns — 
June on the season as she warmer breathes 
O'er all the field, its glittering blades unsheathes— 
When the midsummer's sun is flaming high, 
Its tasseled head it tosses to the sky. 
And at its ample bosom, filled with milk. 
Its babies grow beneath their crowns of silk. 

But if the beauty of this noble field 
Enchant the fancy much more doth its yield 
The understanding captivate ; for born 
Of earth is nothing valuable as corn 
For food for man, and beast, and bird — of course 
I mean those for the farm and poultry house. 

Not only of grains is it the most nutritious, 
And of all vegetables the most delicious,, 
But 'tis so quickly and in such variety 
Of methods cooked, it ne'er creates satiety. 

The roasting-ear may on the cob be toasted. 
Or in its green shuck in the ashes roasted. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 83 

Boiled on the cob it may from that be eaten, 
Or, grated from it, into batter beaten, 
And into pudding baked ; or if you wish, 
Shave the boiled grains into a covered dish, 
With salt and butter ; but the way that's sweetest 
Is eaten from the cob, though not the neatest. 

Then as a winter vegetable, beaten 
To hominy, and thoroughly boiled, it's eaten 
The day 'tis cooked — the next day 'tis supplied 
Conveniently, and for variety fried. 
Or you may grind it — as is done most commonly 
In South Carolina — when 'tis called small hominy ; 
Being reduced to grains the size of rice. 
And dressed like that is, it is quite as nice. 

* Parched, even on the ear, this prince of grains: 
For weeks, for months, the life of man sustains : 
In its next rudest state, (when not a mill near 's,) 
Pounded 'tis prized in Mexican tertillas ; 
Its simplest and perhaps best form we bake 
Covered with ashes — that's the famed ash cake : 
Next hoe-cakes, not upon cast-iron moulds, 
But on old thin-worn hoes, placed on bright coals ; 
Then comes the tribe of pones ; and I most prize 
Those made up over night and set to rise ; 
Then dumplings, and mush, which's such a good thing 
The Yankees think, they call it hasty pudding. 
But to mush-cakes my praises most I make fast, 
For 'twas great Washington's favourite bread for 
breakfast. 

* See note 4 — Part III. 



84 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

The Johnny-cake must not be overlooked — • 
Spread on a board and toasted there 'tis cooked. 
Last come the crowning batter-breads, but made 
Elaborately — milk and eggs must aid, 
And butter and fiour, and a deal of beating, 
To make them for our breakfasts the best eating. 

I've often wished, when seeing them in glory here, 
I could send some to the sweet Queen Victoria 
As rapidly as messages are able 
To travel now, to her jBne breakfast table. 
I think her Majesty would hail the measure, 
And say her morning meal had a new pleasure. 

And to afford her pleasure much 'twould please 
All virtuous people this side of the seas 
Where she hath lieges, not as England's Queen, 
But on that higher throne where she is seen 
Surrounded by that homage which she nurtures 
In the best hearts, as the crowned Queen of the virtues. 

And should her royal table boast corn-bread, 
A taste for it might through all Europe spread : 
And it sets a kind heart almost to bleeding 
To hear of labouring people mainly feeding 
On oats, potatoes, chesnuts, when they might 
On pones and hoe-cakes take their daily bite. 
Like our labourers ; even though no meat 
And greens, nor fish, nor eggs, like them they eat, 
Nor on a Sunday, fowl, which our blacks raise, 
Cooked to a turn an epicure might praise. 
This is not strange, though so at first it looks. 
Considering Who sends meat and who sends cooks. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 85 

Since science now her greatest work hath done. 
And shows us something new beneath the sun — 
The lightning's wondrous swiftness trained to motion, 
Which carries whispers through the Atlantic ocean, 
And thus triumphant o'er time, space and mischance, 
Hath brought the two world's within speaking distance ; 
Let's hope their social intercourse will spread 
So as to teach the merits of corn-bread ; 
'Twould be a work (tho' some at the idea may laugh,) 
Worthy the glory of the Telegraph ; 
For wiser advice its wires cannot give 
Than how the poor may best and cheapest live : 
Here 'tis well known that corn such food supplies, 
And so it might beneath all temperate skies. 

I've heard, less fame to Dr. Franklin's given 
In France for drawing lightning down from heaven, 
(Though Mirabeau's eulogium so grand is, 
Eripuit fulmen coelo, sceptrumque tyrannis^ 
Than he receives from having carried there 
The culture of potatoes, po77imes de terre. 

Now Cobbett says potatoes are a curse. 
For as a nation's food none can be worse. 
And when that fails there's nothing to fall back on, 
And pale-faced Famine brings her dread attack on. 
But where you've corn you may have corn-field peas. 
And 'twixt the rows potatoes if you please ; 
The last is common in that cutest clime, 
Whence Yankee clocks to nations measure time. 
Make the land rich, nor insect pests, nor hail, 
Nor scarcely drought can make the three crops fail ; 



CD VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

And thus though there be " cleanness of the teeth,"* 
Famme will come not with her brother death. 
Now if the lightning, first from heaven drawn 
By Franklin, first should make the use of corn 
Common in the old world, why, would'nt it be 
A charming touch of heavenly harmony. 
For flame from heaven first to the new world drawn, 
\Yould spread to the old its greatest treasure, corn ? 

Cherish this best of plants to feed and enrich us, 
"Whose very shucks and stalks and cobs are precious ; 
Whose grain enables labour best to toil, 
And offal 's best for stock and for the soil. 

The " Randdes Vaches," the gentle tune that tells 
Of the cows coming home with tinkling bells, 
They say make Switzers, by the fairest fountains, 
Of foreign lands, die for their native mountains. 
And I, if in a distant realm forlorn. 
Should suddenly come upon a field of corn. 
Each waving top, each flickering blade within there. 
Would sigh, " carry him back to old Virginia ;" 
And if impossible, or too long to start 
For my first love of realms, 'twould break my heart. 

Long be her hills crowned with this finest of grains, 
And its true treasures vivify her plains ! — 
Shooting so high on every stream's low-ground 
That their majestic elms appear half-drowned 
In the green depths of the corn ! — for then expand 
The blessings of abundance o'er the land, 

* See note 5 — Part III. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 87 

And pallid Want from the benignant clime 
Flies with its train of miseries and crime. 

In my first chant I hinted, with your pardon, 
I might bestow some rhymes on grounds and garden, — 
The dwelling's comforts and its fair surroundings — 
But this cannot be now ; for Avithin soundings 
Of the desired shore for which I pant, 
(And you likewise) I've come, — that of this chant. 

The Proverb says* — " Prepare thy work without. 
And afterwards build thine house." I now have tried 
To teach what to the field should be supplied, — 
How the chief work therein should be prepared, — 
What stock thereon be worked, and what be reared : 
I next may properly, with your leave, be telling 
Something about the garden, grounds and dwelling : 
If I should tell it right, the tale will pay. 
If wrong, pray set it right — and so good-day. 

* See note 6— Part III, 



lUl^gMa fii^ngki. 



Part IV., 



BY CHARLES CARTER LEE: 



Though what if Earth 
Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things therein 
Each to other like more than on earth is thought. 
Paradise Lost, Book V., line 574. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 



The ages of the world, or those most famed, 
Have heretofore been from the metals named. 
The envied one of all, in the times olden, 
Is called, e'en to the present day, the golden, — 
The one in which chain-armor did environ 
Its knighted lords was named the age of iron ; 
A noble band, who to our time belongs. 
Has christened that just gone the age of bronze; 
The highest now in literary position 
Call this in Avhich we live, the age of transition,* 
To save our heads from aught akin to blocks 
They class us with a species of the rocks. 

Well, be it so with the high thinking parts, 
But save us from the story in our hearts ! 
Gain from the sciences whate'er they bring 
To raise our minds, but let affection cling 
To our own land's old ways, and while we give 
Its dues to progress be conservative. 

* See note 1— Part IV. 



92 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

I never see Arcturus but his rays 
Are dearer that upon them Job did gaze, 
Nor view " the Plyads and the Northern team, 
And great Orion's more refulgent beam." 
Without more loving them because they crowned 
Achilles' shield with the ocean poured around, 
And because too their light its guidance lent 
To wise Ulysses as he homeward went. 

Bear as you go the treasures of the past, 
And then your progress will be ne'er too fast ; 
But drop them, nor to their safe lights demur, 
And you will be a mere adventurer. 

'Tis a great age, and useful and sublime 
Its teachings above all of former time. 
Man's physical powers e'en what was hoped transcends, 
The mighty elements trained to work his ends. 
The comfortable fire of earth, the flame 
Which rends the clouds, alike to serve him tame, 
And along iron rails and iron wire. 
Transporting him and his words with the speed of fire. 
Terrestrial and celestial — wave and breeze 
Contemning — and the bottom of the seas 
Making a pathway, and the world to spring 
Into one temple of God, Avith praise to ring ; 
These are the triumphs of his knowledge now ! 
With what will future ages crown his brow ? 

The dream is out to inspired Milton given — 
" Though what if earth be but the shadow of heaven?" 
Its fruit the tree of knowledge is largely bearing, 
And we seem the divine announcement hearing, 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 93 

" Behold the man has iDecome as one of us. 

To know both good and evil." It being thus, 

And having evil tried so long, and found 

With how much bitterness its fruits abound, 

0, may his knowledge of good teach him how good 

It is the good to choose, and how he should 

Place goodness above all things upon earth, 

As that alone whence happiness hath birth ! 

What'er our labours we should have in view 
To increase the good, the useful and the true, 
For other ends not time nor trouble waste, 
And shun the false and vicious even in taste. 

Have these convictions in your mind prevailing 
When you arrange your grounds and build your dwelling. 
And shun, as least becoming in our nation. 
The vulgar, upstart vice of ostentation. 
To this rule let a general accord be. 
Cherish the beautiful and shun the gaudy. 
The simple and harmonious, like the dove, 
Are emblems not of vanity but love : 
Shun aught which teaches children to be vain — 
The ornaments are purest which are plain. 
Doth earth in her fantastic forms disclose 
Aught half as lovely as her simple rose ? 
Doth heaven where all her flickering meteors are 
Show any thing as beauteous as a star? 
Then let God's teachings in his earth and sky 
Rules for the adornment of your homes supply. 

The worst of vanity is that all its cost 
In toil, anxiety and gold, is lost. 



94 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

What palace of what kmg hath such an hubbub 

Kicked up in the world as old Diogenes' tub ? * 

That dirty cynic gained his choice variety 

Of what the vain toil after, notoriety, 

As much to his heart's content as mighty kings 

With gaudy halls, and such vain-glorious things, 

Purchase applauses, from themselves and flatterers. 

And much more just abuse from their bespatterers. 

Besides, in our Commonwealth, the laws . 

Distributing estates should make us pause 

Before in buildings we pile up such cost 

That the distributee of it shall be lost 

In its entailed expenses, or must sell 

The sweet home of his fathers to some "swell," 

And he and his brothers and sisters be debarred 

From visiting the walks where erst they heard 

Their mother's teachings, more impressive made 

By reference to the charms of shine and shade, 

And bud and bloom, and fruit in sweet accord, 

Showing how such were planted by the Lord 

In the Garden where He walked in the cool of the day, 

When our first parents there in bliss did stay — 

And how these remnants left of Paradise 

Should holy talismans be to shield from vice. 

And keep the bosom glowing with piety. 

Yet there her children's walks no more must be — 

Some speculator in the farmer's toil 

Profanes the house and desecrates the soil. 

* See note 2— Part IV. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 95 

" Honour thy father and mother that thy days 

Be long in the land," the fifth commandment says ; 

Then let not parents for such houses pray 

As from the land will force their sons away ; 

But let their wish a modest mansion turn on, 

Like that most hallowed in our world. Mount Vernon. 

None in Virginia need a grander one 

Than what was good enough for Washington ; 

However finely stufied we think our noddles, 

Depend upon it, he's the best of models. 

Though from few doors such beauteous view can stretch 
As down Potomac that called Washington's reach — 
A lovely length of the great river of swans, 
Which charmed the old Masons and the Washingtons. 
Yet round our dwellings we may have such trees. 
Such gardens, flowers, and fruits our toils to ease, 
As were so happily grouped in light and shade 
Along the walks where his country's father strayed, 
And which when leisure came he smoothed his breast. 
By having with their varied beauty dressed ; 
The hand which planted the world's greatest glory here. 
To adorn his dwelling planted the magnolia ; 
To shade his tomb the trees designed to stand 
Were native cedars, planted by his hand ; 
And more appropriately they guard his dust 
Than obelisk or monumental bust. 
No artist's chisel, nor column however grand, 
Can soothe Virginians like the work of his hand. 
Build monuments to his memory fair or rude 
All o'er the land to attest its gratitude, 



96 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Or more important still, in all to nurture 

The love of imitation of his virtue, — 

But at his grave what most our hearts will please, 

Are his self-planted monumental trees, — 

The sheltering cedars, warmed by the glorious sun. 

And cherished hj the care of Washington. 

We wish not at that hallowed tomb that art 

Should with its charms distract the heaving heart, 

But that its every throb should be a pure 

Oblation to the excellence we adore, 

The excellence of truth and purity 

And patriotism, crowned with piety, 

In one whose foot no crooked path e'er trod, 

But marched straight on 'neath the command of God. 

May we not triumph that this excellent one. 
Whose name is honoured most beneath the sun. 
As of true glory the impersonation. 
Delighted most of all in his plantation. 
And 'mid imperial cares his own Mount Vernon, 
As to a Paradise his thoughts would turn on, 
And sigh to fly from man's ingratitude 
To the sweet shelter of its solitude ? 

We learn authentically* that when ambition 
Was charged upon him in his high position 
He said he had rather be on his farm in Virginia, 
Than Emperor of the world — yet many are seen here 
Who sigh to run ambition's airy race, 
And think the country rather a stupid place : 



* See note 3— Part IV. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 97 

But we must teacli our cliildren not to fall 

Into this error, stupidest of all ; 

And as mankind are governed by affections, 

Much more, alas ! than by profound reflections. 

We must engage our dear ones by their loves, 

To live in the country, like the turtle doves, — 

And to do this, we must from eve to morning 

(That is the Scripture court) make their homes charming. 

The evening and the morning were the third day, 
When in full herbage was the world's array : 
then how beauteous were its new spring bowers ! 
What incense streamed to heaven from the pure flowers ! 
Sin was not then, and hence no sacrifice. 
And the innocent world was crowned with Paradise. 

And since redemption's come may we not see 
The earth as God created it to be ? 
May not mankind, in their fallen pilgrimage. 
Be raised by Faith up to their primal stage, 
And find to prayer and praise the power given 
Of making earth again the suburb of heaven ? 

This happy end to forward, charm your door 
With what in Eden's Garden bloomed and bore, 
With trees, and flowers, and fruits, which suit the best 
Your soil and clime, surround your human nest. 
If keen the blast, a bank of evergreen 
Cedars, and pines, and hollies make a screen ; 
And bright magnolias on the sunny side 
Of the warm grove the winter may deride, 
And when the summer comes their fragrance pour us 
From flowers which name their tribe the grandiflorus : 
7 



98 VIKGINIA GEORGICS. 

And cedar hedges, comfortably shape 

On your grounds' edges, like fur on the cape 

Of a winter garment, during frosts to form 

A sunny border sheltered from the storm ; 

There early birds ■will congregate in spring, 

And build their nests, and first begin to sing, — 

There beds of violets will earliest bloom, 

And March breathe softer for their soft perfume ; 

And warmed through winter by the verdant wall, 

Figs and pomegranates ripen in the fall. 

This sheltered spring-tide walk by that green hedging, 

With violet, tulip, hyacinthine edging ; 

HoAV dear to lead a sweet child in o' mornings, 

And teach him Who gives earth these sweet adornings ; 

And thus make the frail beauties of the spring 

Parents of fruits, which know no perishing ! 

And in another portion of your grounds. 
Which this long stretch of cedar hedging bounds, 
Tour poultry will secure their first spring pickings, 
And hens be happy with their earliest chickens ; 
There will the crested cock first hail the morn. 
And he whose plumage Argus eyes adorn. 
Spread to Aurora's bloom his Iris hues ; 
And there America's precious bird* abuse 
His rainbow-tinted wings to scrape the ground 
To rouse his feathered dames with the drum's sound. 
There Guinea-fowls will chasse forward and back. 
Cocks trumpeting and hens replying " Poh ! track !" 

* See note 4 — Part IV. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 99 

And there the beautiful house-pigeon come, 
A dove in form, and more than dove in plume, — 
Some white as snow, some like the azure skies, 
Some with the beauteous tints of hazel eyes, 
Some of all colours blended with the glow 
Upon their bosoms of the heavenly bow, — 
Billing and cooing like the turtle doves. 
And almost fit as they for pets of the loves. 
I learned, when 'mong the Chickasaws a rover. 
Their name for the turtle dove was putcJie eshova, 
Which means ^^ the pigeon that is lost;" its song 
E'en on the Indian's ear, his wilds among. 
Falls as the voice of one whose heart is breaking, 
And's lost for the lost one its love forsaking. 
Such song the heart is rapt sometimes to hear. 
But 'twould be sad if ever in the ear ; 
And therefore Providence around our homes 
Hath placed the pigeon with the varied plumes. 
And made the farther oif trees the happier choice 
Of the sweet " lost one" with golden voice. 

Such kind, far-sighted ways are Providence's, 
Not e'en with sweetness will they cloy the senses. 
If waves or running waters sung a tune 
They would like hurdry-gurdies weary soon, — 
Were bird-songs ruled by music's harmonies, 
How stale would soon become their melodies ! 
All things the mind with this great truth inspire. 
What does not come from Providence will tire ; 
In His infinite ways variety. 
So spices harmony that there's no satiety. 



100 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Bear this in mind ; and follow where you can 
The mighty plantings made by God for man ; 
E'en your green hedges have sometimes revealed 
And sometimes by its sheltered bowers concealed, 
So that an aspect of fatiguing sameness 
May not subdue your landscape into tameness. 
For the same law rules in what to the eye appears 
As in the sounds which charm us through the ears, 
And in that higher harmony which springs 
From conduct, where the feelings are the strings, 
And the great master, conscience, wakes the sounds ; 
There, too, alike the soul in rapture bounds. 
Or sinks despondent, — if the notes awake 
In heavenly airs or in earth's discords break. 

There is a Chinese proverb which well says 
A novice he's in vice and virtue's ways. 
Who pleasure finds in those and pain in these — 
God's ways alone are those which long can please : 
Be they developed in the voice of a bird, 
A flower, or star, or in His holy Word, 
They come alike from the depths of eternity, 
And fill the infinite soul of harmony. 

Might mortals dare divine the source of rapture 
In which their Maker dwells, 'twould be the adapture 
Of infinite means to infinite ends, — still bringing 
Life upon life in bliss and praises singing. 
Our days are few, our labours small, but yet 
Their number and their bounds by Him were set 
Who gave us life and this fair world to bless it. 
And with a garden the command " to dress it." 



VIRGINIA GBORGICS. 101 

We are therefore following the primeval order 
When by a garden walk we dress a border. 

Ere sin came in the world men's happy hours 
Were passed in training vines and trimming flowers, 
And now, as ease from toil and in some wise 
To win for life a charm from Paradise, 
Let's have at least one walk of the garden bordered 
With beauteous flowers to bloom successive ordered. 
Have it so broad that three can walk abreast, 
And edged with evergreen, dwarf box is best — 
Mix with the flowers dwarf trees of precious fruit, 
None better than pears and plums and apricots suit ; 
Let frame-trained grapes their grateful shade bestow, 
Whose bunches fret the arches as they grow. 
Make it a rule to banish every care 
When of this walk you breathe the fragrant air ; 
Deem it a fragment of the Garden given 
To man, and traced perhaps from a walk in Heaven : 
For if in the likeness of God man had his birth. 
Why not in the likeness of Heaven his seat on earth ? 
Cherish the fancy, not for vain elation. 
But as a' fount of pious meditation. 
Let's recollect though from our sweat we eat. 
The very labour makes the bread more sweet. 
And recollect though thorns and thistles come. 
The flowers of Paradise still around us bloom, 
And keep the sj)ot most fragrant with their breath. 
For thoughts that sweeten life and often death. 

'Twould seem that ever in men's mind affinities 
Have flowers and fruits united to divinities. 



102 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

And the fresh hearts of the early age have shown their 

Devotion through their Flora and Pomona. 

Let us the worship substitute of truth 

For these fair fables of the world's wild youth, 

And make these blessings of this rounded clod, 

The earth awaken gratitude to God. 

From this adorned and broadest walk you go 
To narrower ones to where in lengthened row 
The various garden vegetables grow. 
In lengthened row I say, for spading now 
Is too expensive, we must use the plow : 
And fitness is a pregnant source of beauty. 
And nothing's comfortable opposed to duty ; 
And nothing more than precious labour's waste 
Are in its prohibitions more embraced. 

Of good taste, said a bard who disclaimed flattery, 
" Fons ac 'principium,'' in all things, is sap ere, 
Which means that Horace said with truth intense, 
The fountain of good taste is but good sense ; 
And who neglect its rules just so far fail. 
Whether in writing verse or raising kale. 

By this rule tried old garden squares are shams. 
And Beauty walks in parallelograms 
Hand in hand with Economy, and they 
Meet both demands — the growths are fair and pay. 
And of these growths have all your clime will yield. 
By hot-beds early helped to take the field : 
For without vegetables to your guest. 
How can you spread though plain a pleasing feast. 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 103 

Unless on some salt-water coast you dwell 
Abounding with the fish of scale and shell ; 
Or by some forest which can fill your tables 
With game whose flavour needs no vegetables ? 
But without such supplies you must ask pardon 
For meals without the treasures of the garden. 
Aided by these what else were meagre broth 
Are soups to which the palate plights its truth, 
Flavoured by these instead of oily water, 
Are gravies rich with okra and tomato. 
And what were gross in meat upon your tables 
Is delicate when refined by vegetables : 
Provided always not in vain you look 
To aid the gardener's labours to the cook : 
His skilful care your viands still require, 
And if not given, why " the fat's in the fire !" 
For hunger, on whatever flesh-pots set, 
Must have an eye to the Kitchen Cabinet. 

I know that many choose to train their bowers 
About the yard, and edge its walks with flowers, — 
To have remote a truck-patch to work hard in, 
And round the dwelling from the flower garden., 
Where stalwart sons may do the work it imposes, 
And blooming daughters train their sister roses. 

To such refining labour, elegant toil, 
And healthful fragrance of the fresh-stirred soil, 
Addict the darling beings which are given 
To charm the earth with what's of the kingdom of heaven ; 
Turn their affections from the paths of vice 
By things which made the charm of Paradise. 



104 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

The only question is the place of employment, 
Which brings the most of good and of enjoyment : 
If in the yard your precious plants you store, 
The mares and colts are banished from your door, — 
No Devon calves beneath its shades can stray, 
No Southdown lambs there with the children play. 
The dogs must all be banished from its bowers, 
Lest in their romps they break the precious flowers ; 
And e'en the sweet bare-footed children curb 
Their gambols lest its firmness they disturb ; 
And all will bear the uncomfortable taint 
Of want of ease and plenty of restraint. 
Instead of this let freedom stamp the scene. 
And trees majestic shade the well-grazed green ; 
Xor let its limits be too closely drawn. 
The yard should rather spread into a lawn, 
Beneath whose shades of verdure or of rock, 
Repose the treasures of the herd and flock. 
And high-bred mares in stately measure pass. 
Whose colts and fillies gambol on the grass. 
And, if it can be, let the lawn embrace 
Some crystal water sleeping after its race. 
Where cattle drink along its verdant brim. 
While in its centre birds aquatic swim ; 
And of this tribe the graceful glorious one 
In beauty and in music is the swan. 

I have seen where broad Potomac lifts. 
In Westmoreland, its surges 'gainst its cliffs. 
From those high bluffs, where such great men were born. 
The birth-place of the greater Washington : 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 105 

There rush the sea-urged billows rest to seek 

Through the shallow, narrow entrance of Pope's Creek, 

And spread in peace all hushed their troubled roar 

Before the ancient Washingtonian door :* 

There the calm shores an ample, peaceful bed 

For the tossed surges of the river spread, — 

And water-fowl of every exquisite kind 

In its clear shallows plenteous feeding jSnd, 

And on the river flats outside the Creek 

The glorious swans their water-pastures seek ; 

And on the aged trees by cliff and bay 

The eagles watch to strike their feathered prey. 

I've seen, when hunting crowned my youthful glee, 

As many as seven on a single tree. 

Watching the various water-fowl upon 

The waves where bathed in boyhood Washington, 

While within sight and sound of his first rambles 

The dazzling swans were at their tuneful gambols, — • 

Grand birds whose notes canorous all admire, 

And Avhich in rapture rise till they expire ; 

As if some instinct to their breasts were given 

Of how much higher than this earth is heaven. 

'Tis curious and instructive, too, to scan 
How scenes surrounding childhood mould the man, — 
The Creek's expanded waters by his door 
At rest while billows lashed the sheltering shore, 
Might it not teach to cherish inward calm 
However furious raged the outside storm ? 



* See note 5 — Part lY 



106 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

And when tlie tempest's wild, discordant tones 
Came mingled with the music of the swans, 
Might it not teach in social storms to see 
And fix the elements of harmony ? 
And from the eagle, patient at his task, 
Biding his time through every adverse blast. 
Might he not learn the very minute to strike 
Was when the tempest made the blow unlike ? 
And Trenton's glories thus may take their rise 
From the bald eagle swooping up his prize ? 

Nay, moulded by such scene, the eagle's soar, 
The swan whose music shamed the tempest's roar, 
The waters calm beside his boyhood's dwelling. 
While near with rage the river's surge was swelling, 
Might all not blend to form beneath the sky, 
The highest type of aught that's born to die ? 
And searching through our race this very one 
Do we not recognize in Washington ? 
The calmness of whose soul no storm could shake. 
Whose harmony with right no discord break, 
And whom no treasures of the earth could buy 
From looking for his glory to the sky. 

These are the lessons which my childhood learned 
Of the pure fame which Washington has earned 
From those who knew him Avell and loved him more, 
And born close by him on Potomac's shore. 
Yet puny insects of the popular breeze 
Would hostile make to Washington the Lees ; 
Read what they writ of him, if you can achieve it, 
These pages next, when if you can, believe it. 



VIRGINIA GEOHaiCS. 107 

But to return to the lawn and to its waters, 
And Beauty bright in her aquatic daughters : 
We farmers, who are classed as cottage ones, 
Can scarcely hope to have a lake of swans. 
But of their tribe, and more than they in use, 
We may select from every phase of goose, 
And nearer much than to the mule is the donkey, 
And nearer, too, than is to man the monkey, 
Are Bremen geese, the half-crowned, snowy ones. 
To the grand beauty of the glorious swans. 

But never hope your goose will be developed 
To the high charm with which the swan is enveloped : 
Though Lord Monboddo thought that monkeys might. 
By accident or care, reach human height, 
I trust that here none such sheer nonsense cons 
As that which dreams that geese may turn to swans. 

Somebody wrote the Vestiges of Creation, 
And on the shallow-learned made a sensation. 
His theory was that of development 
By which the lower into the higher went. 
We farmers know he was a braying ass. 
For that a mule to a horse can never pass. 
And that a cross of the common goose, our biped 
With the wild winter one, is but a hybrid. 
Nay, tlie great law of nature is so defined, 
Seed after seed shall each produce its kind. 
That by no mingling can we ever cheat 
The bearded to become unbearded wheat. 
Nor coax a damson though with skill we come 
And care to the task, to swell into a plum. 



108 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

Yet the poor charlatans whose toil is given 

To rob the panting earth of rest in heaven, 

Would have us really believe that man 

Is of the monkey but a larger span ; 

And as our limbs are liken, by the dog 

To pass, and find our embryo in the frog ! 

And beings told they are made in the image of God 

Are pleased to see in reptiles their seed-pod ! 

This is as it should be ! — those who from the Griver 
Of life and of the hope that is forever, — 
If they can turn from Him and the knowledge away 
Of truth which they obtain from day to day, 
To welcome what mere speculation tells, 
What are they but the shallowest infidels. 
Who rather trust to the ephemera of man 
Than prophets, who have been since the world began. 
And think the charlatan of the day discloses 
More light than beamed from Milton or from Moses ? 

Among the blessings to the farmer given 
Is that his toil still lifts his mind to heaven : 
Apollos well may water and Paul plant. 
But God and only God can the increase grant. 
For all the lower creatures of the earth. 
All things He ordained when He ordained their birth ; 
To man He gave the dignity to choose 
How all the blessings offered he might use ; 
Nay, an indulgent Father, let his choice 
Extend to hearken not to His own voice ! 
fearful privilege ! Why didn't he make 
Our path fixed as a bear's tied to a stake ? 



VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 109 

Nay, bind our being to a summer's beam, 

Like some fair annual's blooming by a stream, 

So we could ne'er abuse the bounty given. 

But give it all in incense back to heaven ? 

Why didn't He do it ? immortal soul, 

Through thy mysterious depths doth echo roll 

The question back from heaven, Why didn't He do it ? 

And man's referred to his own mind to show it : 

For naught essential to knowledge of good and right 

Hath our blessed Maker hidden from our sight. 

And when comes echoed from the sky again 

'• Why didn't He do it ?" is not the answer plain ? 

He would not in His likeness beings form 

Fixed as a plant or bounded as a worm. 

This world is like the rest in the stellar heights 
As proved by the ingredients of the aerolites. 
Which come as doth the high La Place attest. 
To earth " des profondeurs de I'esjjace celeste," 
Yes, every meteoric stone that's driven 
Against the earth comes from the depths of heaven 
Like comets sent to enable man to try 
Conclusions with the wonders of the sky. 

No doubt among the ultimate uses meant 
Of that bright wonder now in the firmament 
Which just below the golden fur of the Bear 
Bends the long glory of its shining hair. 
Seeking the earth through realms so distant from it 
To plume her spangled night-cap with a comet, 
Is that it should to science' toilsome flights 
A resting place aiFord in the heavenly heights. 



110 VIRGINIA GEOEGICS. 

Where the bright eyes of the world may fix their view, 

Aragos, Sir John Herschell's, Maury's, too, 

To learn if the great sun's resplendent rays 

Are but electric fires in endless blaze, 

So wonderful to exalt the intelligence 

Of man are the high ways of Providence, 

That light, too, on our earth in glory strewn. 
Is vibrated in ether round the throne 
Where sits the Maker of all the shining suns. 
And every planet which around them runs, 
Singly, or with their rings and moons like Saturn's, 
Of which in the sky there may be millions of paterns ; 
And of that subtle essence exquisite chains 
Is made perhaps the indissoluble reins 
By which God guides the interminable race 
Of all his shining worlds through endless space ; 
His glorious infinite team of stars still going 
On with beatitudes for immortals glowing. 

And not alone in physics is perceived 
How much with the heavenly world is this inweaved ; 
For it is certain since the world began 
Through all the tribes which claimed the shape of man. 
Hath ran an instinct which proclaims we must 
In something supernatural put our trust — ■ 
That trust which human cannot supply 
In life's great agonies nor when we die. 

And the evening had not rounded the sixth day. 
And the world was yet uncrowned when God did say. 
Let us make man in our image and 
Give him dominion o'er the sea and land 



VIRGINIA GEOEGICS. Ill 

And all that they inherit ; and 'twas done ; 

And as the races followed one by one, 

To them the earth was parcelled, till the ground 

Was measured out at last by mete and bound 

To individuals with the power to waste, 

Enrich, deform or adorn it to their taste. 

Our land at least is in our farmers' charge ; 

'Tis theirs its blessings to curtail or enlarge. 

As they impoverish their fields or nourish, 

Must all our Commonwealths decay or flourish ; 

And as their children they attract from vice 

By the beatitudes of Paradise, — 

Waking some happy, holy lesson heard 

In every opening flower or chirping bird, 

As they walk with them in the cool of the day 

So will our virtues flourish or decay : 

And 'tis a truth all history serves to nurture, 

There can be no free government without virtue. 

It is auspicious that our favoured ones. 
Those the republic deemed her greatest sons, 
All loved the country and some rural seat 
Adorned to make from toil retirement sweet. 
Of our first Presidents the fair abodes 
Have long familiar been as household words, 
And are the spots where patriots love to go 
To feel their bosoms grand emotions glow. 

Two other spots a kindred interest yield 
To patriot pilgrims, Ashland and Marshfield ; 
Two mighty sons of the new world would there 
Refresh their minds and wasted strength repair. 



112 VIRGINIA GEORGICS. 

And miglity minds they were ; one like his forest, 
Lofty and grand, and spreading wide, the poorest 
And richest striving both alike to save 
From inundation by the foreign wave. 

The other's home was by the boundless sea, 
The likeness upon earth of eternity. 
There in its kindred grandeur Webster's soul 
Could let its musings chime with the billow's roll, 
As his thoughts glanced along their foamy curls, 
To the blessings, each to each, of the two worlds : 
Long may the fires kindled at their graves 
Spread through the land the light that guides and saves ! 

Nor can I leave unmentioned on this page 
That of the " old hero" at the Hermitage, 
Who took the responsibility of duty, 
And made the "Booty" sought the shield of "Beauty." 
O'erwhelming from light walls of cotton-bags. 
Troops used to victory under Wellington's flags : 
And who, when in his country's highest station. 
To crush dissentions in its population. 
Vowed — to high Washingtonian action nerved — 
" The Union must_, and it shall be preserved !" 
They say he had faults, and who that this earth nurtures 
Have not ? But 0, how few have his grand virtues ! 
May such an one be here its rage to breast. 
Whene'er Disunion rears its Gorgon-crest ! 

Great Samuel Johnson said he envied none 
Whose breasts upon the field of Marathon 
With love of country did not warmer glow, nor 
Their piety feel exalted at Zona. 



VIRGINIA GBORGICS. 113 

We undistinguished ones can't have enshrined 

Our homes in the affections of mankind, 

But if our humble paths be truly trod, 

We'll have, what's higher far, the love of God, 

We'll have, what's dearer far, our own sweet sons 

And daughters, in their generations 

Make pilgrimages to the ancestral seat. 

And tell their children's children how 'twas sweet, 

In the old gentleman's time who grouped the bowers, 

And shaped the walks and bordered them with flowers, 

And dappled them with fruits of gold and azure. 

And hung with grapes the shades for evening's leisure — 

Yes, how 'twas sweet to hear the affectionate tones 

Of his loved voice to all his darling ones. 

Telling them how this garden he had made. 

And decked with every charm of sun and shade. 

And flower and fruit, not for their earthly senses 

Alone, but as attractive evidences 

Of how minutely studious of our good 

Is God, and what should be our gratitude ! 

And he would say, " My children when I'm gone, 
And in the grave-yard sleep beneath my stone. 
Remember all the instructions I have given 
To bind this little spot of earth to Heaven. 
Remember that I told you that I planted 
These trees and flowers as things in kindness granted 
To man, with which to imitate the walks 
Where God with our first parents held his talks. 
Let them remind you that the highest sense 
Of man, is to his Maker obedience : 



114 VIRGINIA aEORGICS. 

0, thank Him for the laws he deigns to give ! 

So far you know exactly how to live, 

And pray that in things, which to make us sublime. 

And raise our being above the tide of time. 

He hath left us to find out the proper way. 

He would so guide us that we shall not stray." 

Suppose that every farmer should do this, 
Might not the world be crowned with bowers of bliss, 
And the divine suggestion be forgiven, 
" Though what if earth be but the shadow of heaven ?' 

God, I pray, as thou seest, with streaming eyes, 
That this may be, and my country nearest the skies ! 




ft 



NOTES TO PART I. 



Note 1. — It was said of that accomplished gentleman, the late 
James M. Garnett, that he was a better Agriculturist in theory than 
in practice, and that while he was lecturing in Fredericksburg on 
Agriculture, his neighbour, Mr. Waring, perceiving his corn field to 
be very grassy, had it worked out nicely for him, saying he did not 
like to see Mr. Garnett's own farm suffer while he was labouring 
in behalf of the farming interest of the whole State. And certainly 
the State is much indebted to Mr. Garnett for the impulse he gave 
to Agricultural studies. 

Note 2. — It would seem that horizontal ploughing and ruta-bagas 
were introduced into Virginia about the same time, if we may 
judge from an anecdote told of that able and facetious gentleman, 
the late Governor Barbour, the sound of whose periods came not 
from their emptiness^ like that of " empty barrels," (of which from 
a toast of his own his political opponents dubbed him the Earl,) 
but from being well charged, like that of great guns. It is said 
that the Governor, addressing a plain farmer on the Court-green, 
said : " Well, sir, have you yet adopted the modern method of sub- 
verting your soil at angles of equal departure V When the man 
replied : " I s'pose you mean ruta-bagas — yes, I sowed some last 
month." 

Note 3. — The subjoined article was published some time since, 
entitled. 

Decline op Agriculture in the United States. 

Our readers are aware that a bill has been submitted in the 
House of Representatives, by Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, proposing 
to grant to the several States 5,920,000 acres of land, to be divided 



116 NOTES. 

among them in proportion to the number of Senators and Repre- 
sentatives they send to Congress. The object of the bill is to en- 
courage Agriculture, which he claims is declining in all the States 
in the Union. He says that it will " do something to induce 
farmer's sons and daughters to cluster around the old homestead 
something to remove the last vestige of pauperism from our land 
something for peace, good morals, churches and common schools 
soinething to enable sterile railroads to pay dividends ; something 
to enable the peoj)le to bear the enormous expenditure of the na- 
tional Government ; something to check the passion of individuals 
and of the nation for indefinite territorial expansions, and to pre- 
serve them from ultimate decrepitude." 

In relation to the decline of agriculture in the United States, 
Mr. Morrill says : 

" The quantity of food produced bears each year a smaller pro- 
portion to the number of acres under cultivation, and that over a 
very wide area some of the most useful crops bid fair to become 
extinct. In the New England States alone, he says the wheat crop, 
instead of increasing with the population, fell, in the ten years be- 
tween 1840 and 1850, from 2,014,111 bushels to 1,090,132; and the 
potato crop in the same period from 35,180,500 bushels to 19,418,191. 
The Southern States are hardly any better off. In the four States 
of Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama, there was a falling 
off in the wheat produced during the same period of 60 per cent, 
or more than half. The State of New York is probably one of the 
best, in an agricultural point of view, in the Union. The farms 
are larger, and more capital invested in them, and more skill ap- 
plied in cultivation than in any other. Yet the number of sheep 
in the State now is 300,000 less than it was thirty years ago, and 
within the last five years has declined at the rate of fifty per cent. 
The product of wheat has fallen from 13,391,770 bushels in 1845 
to 6,000,000 in the past year." 

In a word, Mr. Morrill assumes, as the St. Louis Democrat ob- 
serves, that in every State in the Union agricultural statistics tell 
the same story. With the largest area of arable land of any nation 
in the world ; with the smallest population in proportion to the 
square mile; with the lowest rate of taxation ; with skill, enter- 



NOTES. 117 

prise, ingenuity, and freedom from all feudal trammels, we appear 
to be fast returning to the wilderness state, and upon a condition of 
absolute dependence upon taxed and over-crowded Europe, for the 
bread we eat, the beef we roast, and the horses we ride. 

Mr. Morrill's scheme of relief is the construction of thirty-two 
agricultural colleges — one in each State — which are to inaugurate 
a new era in agriculture, revivify it from its present retrograde con- 
dition, and establish it upon a solid and enduring basis. 

We do not know whether Mr. Morrill is right in his facts or not, 
but we are in favor of the bill, as a means of getting a small por- 
tion of the public lands for State purposes. These lands are daily 
being squandered upon the North Western States, and we see no 
earthly reason why Virginia and the South should not receive a 
slight benefit, while they are going. Let Mr. Morrill push his bill 
through Congress, if possible, and he will entitle himself to the 
thanks of the whole country. Wonder if our Virginia representa- 
tives could'nt help him a little, and thus evince their purpose to 
serve their constituents in a single particular, during their Congres- 
sional lives? 

Note 4. — I get this statement from tlie tenth of a series of letters 
addressed by H. C. Carey to the President of the United States, 
which I earnestly recommend to the attentive study of the very 
few persons in the world who study for the purpose of learning 
the truth instead of confirming themselves in error. But whv 
should I even do that, when 

" Men convinced against their will 
Are of the same opinion still?" 

Note 5. — In this line I have condensed and given the meaning 
of nearly two lines in Horace — (Sat. l,Book 1, Line 66:) 

" Populus me sibilat, at mihiplaudo, 

Ij)se domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in area." 

Note 6. — " The king of Brobdignag gave it as his opinion ' that 
whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass grow 
upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would do more 



118 NOTES. 

essentia] service to his country than the whole race of politicians 
put together.' This passage might have been written upon 
Lord Townshend, who retired in 1730 from public affairs, which 
went on none the worse without him, and devoted the remaining 
eight years of his life to improving his estate. He originated prac- 
tices which increased the produce not only two, but a hundred 
fold, and of which the world continues to reap the benefit at this 
hour." London Quarterly for April, 1858, page 221. 

Mr. Coke, of Hollchai-n, afterwards Earl of Leicester, was a con- 
spicuous example — " that no profession in the world was so lucra- 
tive as that of a landlord who devoted his life to the improvement 
of his property. The wealth, nevertheless, which accrued to him- 
self was the smallest part of the gain. He was a national bene- 
factor upon a mighty scale, and was the cause, directly and indi- 
rectly, of adding a countless mass of corn and cattle, of beef and 
mutton, bread and beer, to the resources of the country." Same 
Article, page 23. 



NOTES TO PART II. 



Note 1. — "And add a sixth field," &c. 

A very able article contributed by Mr. Edmund Ruffin to our 
valuable Southern Planter a few years ago, gave me the first sug- 
gestion of a sixth field rotation. I virish I could lay my hands on 
the article that I might add a few extracts from it. I think it con- 
tains some of the most valuable hints which even Mr. Ruffin has 
given to our farmers, extensive, zealous, persevering and valuable 
as his labours in the cause of agriculture have been, and for which 
I am hapi^y in this opportunity of returning him my sincere 
thanks. 

Note 2. — An account and engraving of this mansion may be seen 
in Bishop Meade's most interesting and valuable History of the 
Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. The engraving, 
however, does not show the filling up between the chimneys which 
formerly (made of Venetian blinds) contributed to the formation 
of the summer houses, nor the balustrade which connected them — 
they having decayed and been removed before this engraving was 
taken. 

To confirm my recollection of hearing that the complimentary 
designation bestowed of Col. Lee of the Legion, I refer to ipage 509 
of the Campaign of '81 in the Carolinas, where it is mentioned that 
Col. Howard " styled him the Ulysses of the Southern army," an 
orthodox sponsor at a military baptism. 

Note 3. — For the facts just stated, see the London Quarterly Re- 
view for January, 1858, page 110, column 2nd, and especially the 
extracts frorn Professor Owen, a tutor, I think, to the present Prince 
of Wales. 



{ 



120 NOTES. 

Note 4. — For the statements concerning Mr. Bakevvell and Earl 
Leicester's toast, see a very interesting article in the London Quar- 
terly Review, entitled " The Progress of English Agriculture."' I 
commend the whole article to the particular attention of our 
farmers. 

Note 5. — The following extracts are from the Campaign of '81 
in the Carolinas, by H. Lee : 

"Between the last of October, 1780, and the middle of March, 
1781, Virginia was invaded by near 8000 effectives in three svicces- 
sive divisions, under Generals Leslie, Arnold and Phillips, and 
when Lord Cornwallis joined the army of the last at Petersburg, he 
found it more than 5300 strong.* At the siege of Charleston, she 
lost more than 1000 men, one fifth at least of the garrison. She 
furnished one third of the army under Gates, at Camden; about 
the same proportion, and the leader, of the conquerors of King's 
Mountain; the commander, and a full contingent, at the Cowpens; 
and more than half the army at Guildford ; and of these different 
contributions, the greater part were militia and volunteers." * * 

"But the unanimity of Virginia — firm against repeated and de- 
structive incursions of the British; against Lidian hostilities, which 
pierced and agonized her naked frontier — empowered her to con- 
tinue contributions to the Northern Army, to conquer, and to bestow 
the seats of future empire in the West, and still to remain 'the 
fountain of Southern resistance.' For even while making the great 
exertion, which eventuated in the acknowledgment of our inde- 
pendence, we find her true to her federal duties, furnishing one 
thirtl of the troops who liberated Carolina at the battle of Eutaw." 
* * * * ct 'vvi^iie these heroes" (Sumter, Marion and Pickens) 
"contended chiefly for the independence of their native State, and 
often against their neighbours, the sons of Virginia, unanimous and 
ardent on the side of Liberty, were found i in arms wherever her 
standards flew — on the ramparts of Quebec — on the shores of the 
Hudson — on the sands of Carolina." 



Sir H. Clinton to Earl Cornwallis, June 11th, 1781. 



NOTES. 121 

The modesty of this estimate of Virginia's services in the Revo- 
lutionary War will be acknowledged, when it is recollected that 
the Commander-in-chief is no further mentioned than as embraced 
in her contributions to the Northern army. 



NOTES TO PART III. 



Note 1. — The well known soubriquet for the great Washington 
in his army. 

Note 2. — The phenomena in Nature, said La Place, are merely 
the mathematical results of a few immutable laws. 

Note 3. — Pope adopted this line in the Odyssey, unable to resist 
its beauty. How could I resist it? 

Note 4. — See Kendall's Narrative of his march as a prisoner 
from Santa Fee to the city of Mexico. 

Note 5. — The Scripture phrase for scarcity. 

Note 6. — Prov. Solomon, xxiv — 27. 



NOTES TO PART IV. 



Note 1. — See Edinburg Review for July, 1858, page 37 — Ameri- 
can Edition. 

Note 2. — Be slaves vs^ho virill the cynic shall be free, 
His tub hath tougher walls than Sinope. 

Age of Bronze. 

Note 3. — From Mr. Jefferson's writings. 

Note 4. — There has been some controversy as to the origin of 
the Turkey, and the question as to what region mankind are in- 
debted for this best of the barn-door fowls is fully discussed by the 
author of the "Almanac des Gourmands ;^' and he very justly con- 
cludes it is a contribution of the new world to the old; and he 
says, the best of its contributions. It is found wild no where but 
in America, which seems conclusive that it had its origin here. A 
difficulty has been made about its name ; bul that is derived not 
from the region of Turkey, but from a corruption of its Indian 
name, Tug-gee. I forget where I got this information, but remember 
that I deemed the source of it entirely reliable. The French name 
for the same fowl shows its Indian origin. It was at first Poulet 
d' Inde — Whence, dindon. 

Note 5. — Bishop Meade in his recent valuable history of Old 
Churches, &c., has corrected the common error of making the birth 
place of Washington on Bridge's Creek instead of Pope's Creek. 
See that work for the explanation of this mistake. 



ERRATA. 

On page 11, 7 lines from bottom, for racket? read rack. 

On page 15, 5 lines from bottom, for "And Eve first wove," read wore. 

On page 33, 6 lines from bottom, for "the elements felt " iea.d pelt. 

On page 35, 4 lines from top, for " 'tis loaded o'er," read larded. 

On page 40, 7 lines from top, for " beggar boy," read bigger. 

On page 41, 7 lines from bottom, for " sMM-like billows," read sea-like. 

On page 46, 4 lines from top, for " high astronomy," read e'ew. 

On page 51, 10 lines from top, for ''great face," read quiet. 

On page 52, 13 lines from bottom, for " showed the first peans," read 

sung. 
On page 53, first line, for " human song," read Roman. 
Same page, second line, for " guides the fleeces," read yields. 
Same page, 7 lines from top, for " brewing,'^ read browsing. 
On page 54, ten lines from bottom, for "where sluggish waves," read 

whose. 
On page 56, 14 lines from top, after " charger" insert bold. 
On page 56, 12 lines from bottom, for " came the morning o'er his 

course," read heaviest. 
On page 58, 8 lines from top, for "named in heaven," read signed. 
On same page, ten lines from top, for " lohich my tossed," &c., read 

while. 



■e^' 




VIRGINIA GEOEGICS, 



WRITTEN FOR THE 



^1 (?A 



I 




«rf* /«i>p 



By CHARLES CARTER LEE, 
One of Its Members, 



AND 

PUBLISHED BY THE CLUB. 



RICHMOND: 
JAMES WOODIIOUSE AND COMPANY, 

1858. 



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